The Living Wage campaign launch in Wellington a few weeks ago was a powerful lesson in the way that equal opportunities and equal incomes are inextricably linked. The highlight of the launch was a speech from Sosefina Masoe, a cleaner. Sosofina, who featured in this Dominion Post story, told how she and her husband...
Read more →As part of my book on inequality in New Zealand, I’ve set up a couple of Thursday night talks at Te Papa. The first one, on Sept 13th, is a free, open-invite event for anyone who’s worried about the increasing gap between rich and poor in New Zealand. More details below. Another talk in...
Read more →The latest Roy Morgan poll, released on Friday, shows National’s lead continuing to fall and economic concerns dominating all others. But deeper down in the figures is something far more interesting, and in a way surprising: the gap between rich and poor is worrying more and more New Zealanders, and now bothers twice as...
Read more →Stem cells are very fashionable right now. They sound good: what’s not to like about a ‘master’ cell that can help repair bodily damage by creating new cells, and can be used to treat illnesses such as leukaemia? So people are inclined to think that anything involving them must be good. But a couple...
Read more →A shortage of childcare providers is forcing parents to drive their kids across the city each morning. Fees are soaring, and parents don’t get the information they need to weigh up the options. So what’s going on in early childhood education? (First published in FishHead magazine, February 2012) It is, as Melanie Heaphy puts...
Read more →First it was a trickle, then a flood. A few years ago, sales of e-books – electronic versions of books that can be downloaded and read on a computer or handheld device – were negligible. Now, Amazon sells more e-books than paper ones, and on some predictions e-books will make up a sixth of...
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