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Panama Papers Reveal Different Rules for the Wealthy

The release of the Panama Papers reveals another significant gap between the wealthy and others in New Zealand, according to the Closing the Gap---Income Inequality project.

“While low and middle income earners have no choice but to pay their full share of taxes, the wealthy elite focuses on tax minimisation or tax evasion,” according to spokesperson Peter Malcolm.

“It’s not a question of whether foreign trusts are legal or not - that is the argument of the wealthy and their tax lawyers.

“It is a moral issue of ensuring all pay their fair share of tax so that the income inequality gap doesn’t keep widening.

“Is the Government seriously suggesting that trusts are a viable option for the poor, in the same way as so many MPs recently declared they are using trusts?” Mr Malcolm said.

“Closing the Gap is no longer an ideological issue and it’s not just an economic or social issue. This is an issue of what sort of society New Zealanders want for themselves versus rich elites exploiting our society and way of life.”

Mr Malcolm said the rich are “not paying their whack”.

“Does the Government see a different set of rules for the rich, which is why the Prime Minister so easily shrugs off the Panama Papers?

“There are workers on the minimum wage in Auckland who work hard and long hours but can’t even afford now to live in the working class suburbs that were set up to house them.

“New Zealanders don’t see this as right. It’s not the New Zealand they and their parents call home,” Mr Malcolm said.

“The Government relies on rising unemployment and immigration levels to limit wage growth. Yet more than 4,800 Fonterra staff earn over $100,000. 75 of those earn between $500,0000 and $1 million a year and 22 earn more than $1 million. Their CEO earns $4.9 million.” ...../2
“Meanwhile the Finance Minister describes young men needed for farm work as ‘pretty damned hopeless’ and uses this to justify further immigration that’s ‘a bit permissive to fill the gaps’. What sort of society does he live in?” Mr Malcolm asks.

“At least Social Development Minister Anne Tolley seems to understand what is needed with her re-structuring plans for CYF to ensure children are in a safe, stable and loving environment.

“She seems to be heading in the right direction and should be congratulated.”

Meanwhile, while there are already warnings of the start of an international economic collapse worse than the Global Financial Crisis and Mr Malcolm says inequality problems are growing internationally and will get much worse.

“United Nations data analysed by the Food Foundation and released last week in the United Kingdom shows 8.4 million people in Britain live in households that are struggling to put enough food on the table, with over half regularly going for a whole day without eating anything.

“In other data, if you are born in the inner-city suburb of Carlton in Glasgow, the average male life expectancy is 54. Yet only a few streets away, in the spacious and leafy suburb of Lenzie, life expectancy is 82.

“42% of workers in the United States earn less than US$15 an hour for fulltime work. Many are paid half that. Women, African Americans and Latinos are overrepresented and more than 46% of this group is 35 years or older,” Mr Malcolm says.

“We can’t necessarily fix the problems elsewhere in the world, but we can address what sort of society we want in New Zealand. Too much wealth in too few hands is not the New Zealand way and we should not be dismissing the Panama Papers as ‘a political beat up’.

“New Zealand stands for a fair share for everyone, and it’s time we got back to it,” Mr Malcolm said.

ENDS

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