Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand

08/10/2026

Focusing only on growing the pizza misses how it’s distributed.

If your ‘vision’ for the future is purely to grow the pizza, many people will still miss out.

The wealth distribution in Aotearoa New Zealand is pretty bleak.

The top 1% own 14.1%
The top 5% own 34.2%
The top 10% own 48.5%
The bottom 50% share a measly 6.7%

The bottom 20% have negative net worth. This group is $3.5 billion in debt, owing an average of $9,000.

These statistics are based on 2024 numbers, so the picture is most likely much worse.
Over the last 40 years, the trends show wealth share of the top 10% has continued to grow, while the share of the bottom 50% has remained stagnant.

The top 0.0028% own more than
the bottom 50%.

150 individuals and families own 
more than the bottom 2.65million.
Aotearoa now has 26 billionaires who are collectively worth $129 billion.

A net worth of $1 billion is 2,000 times the average kiwi’s.
Say you had one slice; that means that a billionaire would have 200 boxes.

More unequal societies do worse on nearly every measure. Innovation is driven by a good idea and a stable, fair country to build it in.

If we’re comparing our GDP ranking today with that of the 1950s, we should also look at the tax rates.
Post-war, the top rate dropped slightly from 90%, taking it to 76.5% by the end of the 1940s.

We’ve flattened our tax rates, and now a nurse or teacher pays a higher effective tax rate than those at the top.

We used to consider ourselves an egalitarian society where we all chipped in and shared in progress together. Aotearoa’s astounding wealth gap challenges our fair go identity.

06/10/2026

Economists’ crystal balls are cracked:
The ‘experts’ who are trying to forecast the unpredictable.

Anybody who has been caught out in a surprise downpour in Auckland understands the importance of weather forecasts and how sometimes they still get it wrong. Weather systems are complex, but they are based on predictable laws of physics and well-documented cycles. Economies, on the other hand, are based on varied human behaviour and unpredictable patterns.

Modern economics uses a cracked crystal ball to forecast an irrational market.

Forecasters use complex models of markets and consumer behaviour, plus a healthy dose of judgement and revision. Despite their confidence, studies have shown that the average expert’s forecasts are only slightly more accurate than guessing randomly.

The 2008 global financial crash surprised almost the entire mainstream economics profession. A study showed similar trends globally, with private sector forecasters only able to predict 2 in 60 recessions.

Since the 1870’s, economics, previously named ‘political economy’, has been striving to be seen as an exact science, like physics or chemistry, governed by neutral terms and rules that are easy to model and understand. The field sees itself as telling objective truths rather than a social science trying to understand the complexities of humanity while being swayed by ideology and philosophy.

It has succeeded, as unlike other social sciences,�there is a Nobel Prize for Economics that sits alongside those of physics and chemistry.

An overconfident economic�field has convinced governments, everyday people and the scientific community that the market and its forces are no different from the laws of physics.

Aotearoa is no different; the false illusion of exactness in economics guides our monetary policy and our financial choices.

Forecasts for reaching surplus or growing GDP shouldn’t be the main driver of the choices we make in the economy. �We should be focused on facing the challenges of today and creating an economy that serves the wellbeing of people and the planet.

01/10/2026

The world's largest sailing yacht just arrived in Aotearoa. It is owned by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon (net worth $366.4 billion USD).

The obscenely big boat is named after the Māori word Koru, which makes us feel a little queasy co-opting a word meaning balance and harmony to name a boat that is the definition of excess.

The 417ft (127m) vessel can accommodate up to 18 guests and requires a crew of about 40. It has multiple on-deck swimming pools and spas, many bars and lounges, and even a movie theatre.

This obscenity is over 10 times the size of an average house in Aotearoa. It’s the same size as a small cul-de-sac.

We need to design an economy that sees these excesses as a failure and not a feature or aspiration.

The superyacht is worth NZ$800 million, is registered in the tax haven Cayman Islands, and, like many superyacht owners, was probably written off as a business expense.

Billionaires like Bezos use the economic system to their advantage.
They dodge taxes; they organise stock buybacks to inflate their wealth; they buy competitors to consolidate power; and they refuse to fairly share profits with workers by breaking up unions or moving jobs overseas.

Aotearoa stands to gain very little from the Bezos boat visit. A tax break for superyachts means foreign superyachts can stay for up to 21 months and get refits and repairs without paying tax, potentially saving Bezos millions of dollars.

Shouldn’t the point of a tax system be to encourage the behaviour we want and discourage what we don’t want?
The excesses of the ultra-wealthy haven’t been earned in a vacuum; they owe a lot to the public institutions and resources they’ve relied on and the workers who have innovated and done the mahi.

We need to tax wealth, not work. It’s absurd that we give a tax break to superyachts. And yet the nurse or school teacher working for the benefit of our community pays double the effective tax rate of the richest families in Aotearoa.

It makes sense for the wealthy to contribute to the society they belong to, the same society that helped make their success possible.

29/09/2026

Share with the young Aucklanders in your life!

If you want, no pressure.

Except for, you know... the future of democracy resting on your shoulders

https://www.together.org.nz/stand_up_and_vote

27/09/2026

Are the old economic rules cracking?

As Gareth writes, "After four decades of governments reluctant to intervene directly in markets, all four parties now accept that New Zealand’s supermarket duopoly is not working and needs major structural reform.

These parties’ supermarket policies show politicians are taking off the gloves. Could this mark the beginning of the end of the hands-off economic orthodoxy that has dominated since the 1980s?"

OPINION: At last, some genuine competition in the grocery sector!

24/09/2026

How can we respond to the climate crisis without becoming overwhelmed?

Please join us and internationally recognised speaker, climate psychology educator, therapist and consultant, Leslie Davenport, on a webinar to explore these ideas and more!

We'll look at the emerging field of climate psychology and how it addresses the eco-anxiety, grief, and overwhelm that show up in daily life in a rapidly warming world.

We'll discuss how we can navigate the emotional toll it takes, while building the resilience and capacity to keep taking meaningful action.

And we'll learn about why tending to our “inner landscapes” – our thoughts, feelings and nervous system – is inseparable from caring for our outer landscapes.

This will be an engaging conversation with opportunities for discussion. It is for anyone whose heart is open to all that's worth saving in our beautiful world, and the clarity, courage, and collective action it will take to save it.

Co-hosted by Goodlife Collective and Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa

Book your place here: https://www.weall.org.nz/events/leslie-davenport

Details:
Friday, October 16 12PM - 1:15PM NZT
Online, Zoom.
(Note: if you're joining us from overseas, it's Thursday, 15 October - 4PM PT)

24/09/2026

Green Shoots: The Wellbeing Economy In Action

In many climate-fueled weather events, marae have been the first place to provide for families and wider communities affected by disaster. A safe place to shelter displaced whānau and a central hub for coordinating local response.

Marae have faced their own challenges with the instability and displacement. Energy resilience became an important way for them to continue showing up when it mattered most.

Following Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, Trust Tairāwhiti co-ordinated the launch of The Tairāwhiti Marae Solar Project, a clean energy initiative aimed at building long-term resilience for Marae across the motu.

These projects show the way forward for community-led energy production and resilience in Aotearoa. Marae become local energy hubs, strengthening local energy independence and reducing reliance on expensive energy bills.

11/09/2026

One in seven New Zealand children live in material hardship, going without the essentials of everyday life. That’s 169,300 children.

Late last month, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) released the Manifesto to Reduce Child Poverty. It’s a compelling call for political leadership for the next generation, not more warped-ideology, political point-scoring, and broken promises.

Our excessive rates of child poverty are a political choice. The manifesto proposes solutions set out across five priority areas: incomes, housing, health, disability and education.

As Lyn Amos from CPAG says, “We love all Kiwi kids. We know what we need to do. Let’s get on with it.”

We were proud to support this mahi and put our name alongside this report.

Director of WEAll Aotearoa, Gareth Hughes, spoke about this very problem at CPAG’s annual post-Budget hui earlier this year.

These child poverty numbers are the type of failures we want to fix in our economy. We think that rather than continuing to mop up the flooding, we need to ask why our house is leaking. The economic system was not made to ensure every child has enough to thrive, but we can redesign it so that everyone’s wellbeing is at the heart. We should all be included in the conversation about economics and how we want our economy to work in the service of life.

06/09/2026

Politicians tend to notice who votes right?

Good news: Rangatahi are the second largest group of eligible voters in Aotearoa. That means they have a huge amount of potential voting power.

Bad news: Almost 188,000 18- to 24 year olds remain unenrolled for the election.

Great news: The youth enrolment rate rose from 53.89 percent at the end of July to 57.45 percent at the end of August. And a new rangatahi-led campaign is calling on young people to help deliver the biggest youth-voter turnout in Aotearoa's history. 'Roll With Us' launched on Sunday as part of 'On A Roll', a kaupapa aimed at getting more young people enrolled and voting in this year's general election.'

Lessssgo Aotearoa! One tangible thing you can do today is check in with a young person and ask them if they are enrolled.

Follow On a Roll here: https://www.instagram.com/onaroll.nz/

A new rangatahi-led campaign is calling on young people to help deliver the biggest youth-voter turnout in Aotearoa's history.

26/08/2026

GDP is not fit for purpose.

For 50 years, economists and politicians have fixated on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the most important measure of economic progress.

But it’s a very limited metric, and the pursuit of GDP growth is driving the crisis we face.

But we are seeing a change in the narrative!
Mainstream media worldwide are publishing critiques of our dependence on the reductive metric of GDP.
Even some of the big banks are questioning the endless pursuit of GDP growth.

Probably the most promising sign of change was earlier this year at the UN conference Beyond GDP: A Compass of Progress for People and Planet.

"When we destroy forests, overfish or burn coal, we are increasing gross domestic product. It's time to change an accounting system that counts the destruction of the planet as if it was the production of richness." – António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

This gives us hope. Big institutions and mainstream media are highlighting a story of life beyond GDP, measuring what really matters to people and their communities.

The economy is a product of design and can be redesigned.

We can build a world where prosperity is measured not by GDP but by the health of our communities, the sustainability of our environment, and the inclusiveness of our societies.