NZ HERALD 13 MAY 2014: INEQUALITY IN NZ UNDER SPOTLIGHT

TWO BRITISH HEALTH RESEARCHERS ARE GEARING UP TO CHALLENGE New Zealanders' unusually high tolerance of what many countries consider a social evil - inequality. Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, whose book The Spirit Level was subtitled "Why more equal societies almost always do better", will present this year's Sir Douglas Robb Lectures at the University of Auckland from May 19-23. Economist Tim Hazledine says the book "has made a huge impact on just about every field of social science and policy analysis" since it appeared in 2009. The European Union and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission are both proposing to make companies disclose the ratios between their chief executives' packages and their median pay rates. OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria said last week: "Inequality undermines societies and damages economies. It is not enough to put in place policies that harness growth, we must also ensure that the benefits of growth are shared by everyone." But in New Zealand, the Labour Party is struggling to get inequality off the ground as an election issue. Professor Hazledine points to a 2006 survey of 32 countries which found New Zealanders were less supportive of redistributing income from the rich to the poor than people in any other nation. Asked, "Do you think it should or should not be the government's responsibility to reduce income differences between the rich and the poor?" only the barest majority of Kiwis, 50.1 per cent, said yes - behind even Americans (52.2 per cent), and little more than half of the 90 per cent-plus support for redistribution in Portugal, Chile or Slovenia. "We have to understand why we don't have blood flowing in the streets," Dr Hazledine says. READ MORE AT: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11253734