WHILE STRUGGLING New Zealanders are caught in the pincer movement of the rising cost of living and the Government's austerity agenda, corporate profits remain extraordinarily high at a time when a growing number of people are experiencing hard economic times.
This week the country's biggest bank, the ANZ, announced a half year profit of $1.04 billion, a rise of four percent. It seems though that the ANZ isn't entirely happy with the amount of money it is sucking out of New Zealand, describing the six-monthly result merely as 'steady'.
The ANZ result though has largely gone uncommented on by a corporate media, much of it having embraced the Government's economic agenda and loathe to criticise it. You won't hear Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking or Heather du Plessis Allan angrily denouncing excessive corporate profits.
The corporate media has preferred to point people in the direction of meaningless distractions like Green MP Julie Ann Genter's little argument with National Party MP Matt Doocey.
It was only last year that a study conducted by researcher Edward Miller for First Union, the Council of Trade Unions and lobby group Action Station, revealed that New Zealand's chronic rise in the cost of living has largely been driven by surging corporate profits.
The problem is compounded by Zealand's small economy dominated by oligopolies in highly uncompetitive markets. The inevitable result of such monopolies is the vast profits that are being made at the expense of the consumer. The Commerce Commission, for example, has estimated that the country's two supermarket chains, Foodstuffs and Woolworths, are making over $400 million in excess profit every year. That's over one million dollars a day. Yet prices continue to rise and there appears to next to no government urgency to do anything about it. Little wonder that the supermarket chains are complaining of an increase in shoplifting. This might well be described as criminal activity, but it could also be interpreted as political resistance.
Most people know that the corporate sector is making vast profits at their expense, hence the howls of public outrage when yet another corporate announces yet another huge profit. But the present government wants us to believe that our economic woes are due to excessive government spending when the real reason is corporate greed. So, while the corporates are allowed to waltz away with their massive profits, more New Zealanders are losing their jobs and kids are being asked to make do with cut-price school lunches.
Neither National nor Labour can be accused of following public opinion. While the National-led coalition government is intent on pursuing a conservative economic agenda, Labour is giving no indication that it is prepared to abandon neoliberalism either. Led by an instinctly conservative Chris Hipkins and no-one waiting in the wings to challenge him, it's unlikely that the Labour will have anything to offer at the general election in 2026 other than a promise to 'manage' the market economy better than National.
But the Green Party has, at least, proposed a wealth and corporate tax of 33 percent in order to help fund a better New Zealand for the many and not just the few. Perhaps the corporate media could talk with Julie Ann Genter about it. She's the Green Party's finance spokesperson.
This week the country's biggest bank, the ANZ, announced a half year profit of $1.04 billion, a rise of four percent. It seems though that the ANZ isn't entirely happy with the amount of money it is sucking out of New Zealand, describing the six-monthly result merely as 'steady'.
The ANZ result though has largely gone uncommented on by a corporate media, much of it having embraced the Government's economic agenda and loathe to criticise it. You won't hear Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking or Heather du Plessis Allan angrily denouncing excessive corporate profits.
The corporate media has preferred to point people in the direction of meaningless distractions like Green MP Julie Ann Genter's little argument with National Party MP Matt Doocey.
It was only last year that a study conducted by researcher Edward Miller for First Union, the Council of Trade Unions and lobby group Action Station, revealed that New Zealand's chronic rise in the cost of living has largely been driven by surging corporate profits.
The problem is compounded by Zealand's small economy dominated by oligopolies in highly uncompetitive markets. The inevitable result of such monopolies is the vast profits that are being made at the expense of the consumer. The Commerce Commission, for example, has estimated that the country's two supermarket chains, Foodstuffs and Woolworths, are making over $400 million in excess profit every year. That's over one million dollars a day. Yet prices continue to rise and there appears to next to no government urgency to do anything about it. Little wonder that the supermarket chains are complaining of an increase in shoplifting. This might well be described as criminal activity, but it could also be interpreted as political resistance.
Most people know that the corporate sector is making vast profits at their expense, hence the howls of public outrage when yet another corporate announces yet another huge profit. But the present government wants us to believe that our economic woes are due to excessive government spending when the real reason is corporate greed. So, while the corporates are allowed to waltz away with their massive profits, more New Zealanders are losing their jobs and kids are being asked to make do with cut-price school lunches.
Neither National nor Labour can be accused of following public opinion. While the National-led coalition government is intent on pursuing a conservative economic agenda, Labour is giving no indication that it is prepared to abandon neoliberalism either. Led by an instinctly conservative Chris Hipkins and no-one waiting in the wings to challenge him, it's unlikely that the Labour will have anything to offer at the general election in 2026 other than a promise to 'manage' the market economy better than National.
But the Green Party has, at least, proposed a wealth and corporate tax of 33 percent in order to help fund a better New Zealand for the many and not just the few. Perhaps the corporate media could talk with Julie Ann Genter about it. She's the Green Party's finance spokesperson.
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