Labour MP and former education minister Trevor Mallard has suggested that the school system might be spending too effort on working with the bottom fifth of students at the expense of “the most talented kids”. Giving a lecture in Wellington on Tuesday this week, Mallard noted efforts to make sure the school system responds...
Read more →The Herald has an opinion piece from Auckland Council’s chief economist, Geoff Cooper, about inequality and why education offers the best route to tackling it. Now, it’s great to see an economist, and one working for an increasingly influential body, talking about income gaps. But, just like the Treasury, he’s arguing for a very...
Read more →A rather disturbing report on Wellington’s health services shows that central government policies have led directly to people already in poor health getting even lower priority. ‘From Great to Good’, by professor Don Matheson, explains how – under pressure from central government targets – the Capital Coast District Health Board (C&CDHB) has increased spending...
Read more →Another day, another study showing how an unfair tax system is helping widen the gap between the rich and the rest. It’s a US study this time, which finds that the biggest reason for widening wealth gaps 1991-2006 is the capital gains and dividends going to the top 1%. These kind of windfalls are...
Read more →The Treasury has just released a paper outlining its thoughts on inequality (as part of its wider work on Living Standards). Now, it’s great to see the Treasury acknowledging that it matters how income is distributed – not just how much of it we generate. Unfortunately, it hasn’t quite faced up to the full reality...
Read more →I’ve just written a piece for an international project aimed at improving governance – the way countries are run – known as the Sustainable Governance Indicators. The piece is about our rising inequality, and how it threatens some of the things we hold dear: a relatively free and transparent political system, for example. It’s...
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