💰 Economy & Tax Policy

"Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini – My strength is not that of an individual, but that of the collective."

📉 Background

Aotearoa’s economy has been shaped by decades of neoliberal policies that prioritise corporate profits over community wellbeing. Wealth inequality has reached record highs. While the wealthiest accumulate unproductive capital, many New Zealanders struggle with low wages, rising living costs, and insecure work. The current tax system heavily burdens income earners while largely exempting wealth, capital gains, and financial speculation — creating an unjust and unsustainable economic model.

🌱 Vision

We envision an equitable, post-capitalist economy rooted in collective wellbeing, ecological balance, and tino rangatiratanga. Our economy must serve people, not markets — and shift from growth for growth’s sake to one that measures success by how well we care for each other and the whenua. This includes supporting timebanking, gift economies, and mutual aid networks that decommodify care, restore reciprocity, and build collective resilience beyond money.

🎯 Objectives

• Redistribute wealth fairly to reduce inequality and poverty.
• Ensure that essential needs — housing, food, transport — are guaranteed to all.
• Shift economic policy from GDP-based metrics to holistic wellbeing indicators.
• End tax privileges for the ultra-wealthy and speculative finance.
• Support cooperative, solidarity-based, and post-monetary economies alongside public services.

📜 Policy Commitments

• Introduce a wealth tax on net assets over $2 million.
• Implement a capital gains tax and a financial transactions tax.
• Remove GST from food, medicine, and other essential goods and services.
• Guarantee universal basic services — such as housing, energy, and transport — to reduce reliance on cash income.
• Close tax loopholes and enforce corporate tax compliance.
• Introduce a national Timebanking Network where people exchange services and skills using time as currency, not money.
• Support community-led gift economies, mutual aid cooperatives, and local exchange systems that promote solidarity over profit.
• Fund the development of open-source platforms that facilitate non-monetary exchange, volunteering, and resource sharing.

🛠 Implementation Plan

• Pass the Economic Justice Act introducing wealth, capital gains, and financial transaction taxes.
• Amend the GST Act to eliminate tax on essential goods and services.
• Establish a Universal Basic Services Fund to deliver essential public goods without charge.
• Create a Wellbeing Economics Advisory Council to replace GDP with holistic wellbeing indicators in budgeting and policy.
• Hire and train new Inland Revenue enforcement teams to audit high-net-worth individuals and corporations.
• Launch a National Timebank Pilot Programme across 10 regions, with digital and physical platforms for time-based exchanges.
• Create a Ministry of Cooperative & Solidarity Economies to support mutual aid, gifting, and collective ownership initiatives.
• Partner with marae, community hubs, and whānau-led organisations to host timebank exchanges and educational workshops.

📆 Timeframe

Year 1–2:

• Introduce and pass tax reform legislation
• Remove GST on food and essentials
• Create UBS Fund and launch Timebank Pilot

Year 3–5:

• Begin implementation of wealth and financial taxes
• Expand access to basic services and timebank networks nationwide
• Launch Ministry for Cooperative & Solidarity Economies

Year 6–10:

• Achieve full transition to a wellbeing-based economy
• Reduce income inequality and poverty by 50%
• Embed non-monetary systems of exchange into public infrastructure and national economic planning