THE 45 CENT INCREASE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE IS AN INSULT TO WORKERS

The 45 cent increase to the minimum wage is less than $20 a week, at a time when the cost of living continues to escalate. Described by Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden as a 'balanced approach', it is a policy born of neoliberal consensus, defended by appeals to moderation, and destined to perpetuate hardship.

 

THE GOVERNMENT'S announcement of a 45-cent increase to the minimum wage is a cruel joke at a time when the cost of living is escalating and inequality is deepening. For a full-time worker, this amounts to less than twenty dollars extra a week before tax. It is not enough to cover a couple of grocery items, let alone the rising rent, power bills, and transport costs that dominate household budgets. Presented as 'moderation' and a 'balanced approach' by Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden (annual salary $313,000), this increase is in fact neglect. It reflects a political class more concerned with protecting business margins than defending the dignity of workers.

The rhetoric of 'balance' between supporting workers and limiting costs for employers is the familiar refrain of neoliberal orthodoxy. Since the 1980s, successive governments have insisted that the market must be protected from the demands of labour. But the balance has long tipped in favour of capital. The minimum wage increase is not an isolated policy; it is the logical outcome of a system designed to suppress wages while shielding profits. Responsibility, in this context, means loyalty to capital, not to the families choosing between rent and food or the young workers juggling multiple jobs to survive.

Meanwhile, the wealthy are accumulating assets at record pace. Property speculation, financial markets, and tax loopholes have ensured that New Zealand’s rich are getting richer even as ordinary households are trapped in cycles of debt and deprivation. The so-called 'two-speed economy' is not a myth but a lived reality, but not in the way that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has presented it. For those at the bottom, wages stagnate and insecurity grows. For those at the top, wealth compounds effortlessly. Neoliberalism has entrenched this divide by hollowing out public services, commodifying housing, and weakening unions. The result is a society where inequality is not an accident but an entrenched feature.

What is most damning is the lack of political will to overturn these failed policies. Labour, which once claimed it was the party of working-class advancement, has long since capitulated to market logic. National openly champions business interests. NZ First and Act thrive on populist distractions while offering no structural alternatives. Only the Greens consistently challenge neoliberalism, advocating for wealth taxes, stronger labour protections, and ecological-economic transformation. Yet even they risk being constrained by coalition deals with Labour, forced to temper radical proposals in exchange for ministerial portfolios. The political landscape is one where genuine alternatives are marginalised and systemic change perpetually deferred.

Neoliberalism promised efficiency, growth, and prosperity. Instead, it delivered inequality, precarity, and ecological collapse. In New Zealand, it dismantled the welfare state, weakened unions, and entrenched a low-wage economy. The minimum wage increase of 45 cents is emblematic of this legacy. It is defended as responsible by neoliberal acolyte Brooke van Velden, but responsibility to whom? Certainly not to the workers who keep the economy running while struggling to survive. The government’s framing reflects neoliberal ideology at its core: the belief that markets must be protected from the demands of workers, even when those demands are for basic survival.

If New Zealand is to break free from this cycle, incremental adjustments will not suffice. What is needed is a transformative agenda: public ownership of essential services to guarantee affordability and access; progressive taxation, including wealth and capital gains taxes, to redistribute resources; living wages tied to actual costs of living rather than political convenience; strengthened unions and collective bargaining to rebalance power in the workplace; and ecological-economic planning that prioritises sustainability over profit. These are not radical fantasies, but necessities in a society where inequality is deepening and climate collapse looms.

The 45-cent minimum wage increase is a reminder of how little the political establishment values workers. It is a policy born of neoliberal consensus, defended by appeals to moderation, and destined to perpetuate hardship. Unless political will shifts decisively, New Zealand will remain trapped in a cycle where the rich grow richer and the poor are told to tighten their belts. The Greens may offer a glimmer of resistance, but unless they break free from coalition constraints and some of their MPs abandon their centrist fantasies, their vision risks dilution. Real change will require not just parliamentary manoeuvres but grassroots mobilisation—a movement that demands redistribution, rejects neoliberal orthodoxy, and insists that dignity is not negotiable.

Forty-five cents is not progress. It is an insult. It is proof that the government has no intention of confronting inequality. And it is a call to action for those who refuse to accept crumbs while others feast.