By Elliot Crossan
It’s a tale of two cities; a tale of two countries. On 10th June, the National Business Review (NBR) released its 2025 Rich List profiling the richest people in Aotearoa. A few days later, rangatahi in Auckland led a hīkoi demanding action on the crisis of youth homelessness. Two entirely different versions of Aotearoa; but entirely connected. One is not possible without the other. The extraordinary wealth of the Rich Listers is not possible without poverty, homelessness and hardship for far too many.
Celebrating ‘Success’
“Isn’t it fantastic that we have got people with ambition, aspiration and positivity? […] I know how hard people work in New Zealand, and there [are] some pretty inspirational stories. […]
As a country we want people to be able to move themselves from one set of circumstances to a better set of circumstances, and it’s okay to celebrate this success.
But I just also say to you that I know New Zealanders are doing it tough and it’s important that we are doing everything we can as a government to create the conditions for growth.”
This is how Christopher Luxon greeted the news that the number of billionaires and the wealth of the richest families in Aotearoa has increased in the midst of an economic crisis.
Luxon was responding to Radio New Zealand’s Corin Dann, who challenged the Prime Minister on the findings of the annual NBR Rich List. NBR found that Aotearoa now has 18 billionaires, up from 16 last year, and that the wealth of the 119 individuals and families profiled now exceeds $100bn for the first time, at $102.1bn — up from $95.6bn last year. The wealth of the Rich Listers increased by 6.9% whilst the economy shrank by 1.1%; the richest New Zealanders are now worth more than 40% of the nation’s GDP.
NBR took an even more celebratory tone than Luxon. The business journal issued a press release describing the Rich Listers as “119 Kiwi individuals and families who are building enterprises, growing the country’s fortunes, creating jobs, and giving back.” The message is clear — what’s good for the wealthy is good for all of us.
So how exactly are Aotearoa’s billionaires and multi-millionaires “giving back?” Bryce Edwards’ summary of the Rich List report gives us a few helpful clues.
Firstly, they’re buying superyachts, helicopters and private jets. In a country where 156,000 tamariki are growing up in poverty — that’s 13.4% of our children, up from 10.5% in 2022 — our wealthiest citizens are living lives of increasing luxury.
Secondly, they’re buying lavish estates. In the midst of the housing crisis that for years has been causing huge insecurity and hardship for working class communities, particularly amongst younger people, Graeme Hart has spent a portion of his fortune on a huge penthouse in New York. The Morbray brothers have bought and renovated Kim Dotcom’s old mansion.
Thirdly, they’re buying our politicians. Multiple Rich Listers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to support National, ACT and NZ First during the last election, whilst others merely spent tens of thousands. The Coalition owes its victory in large part to these donors. The record for political donations in NZ elections was smashed out of the park in 2023, and is likely to be broken again in 2026.
The super-rich are getting their money’s worth from this government. Their taxes have been cut and their businesses have been given subsidies at the same time as benefit sanctions have thrown more people into poverty, the budget for pay equity has been slashed at the expense of low-paid women, and David Seymour has taken a hatchet to the school lunch programme for low-decile schools.
The health system is in crisis as a result of dangerous underfunding and short-staffing. The government’s solution is to partially privatise essential healthcare services. Mining and drilling projects are being fast-tracked heedless of the environmental or social impact, thanks in part to sweetheart deals between ministers and corporate lobbyists. Kāinga Ora is halting hundreds of state housing developments and selling off vacant land.
The unifying logic behind the government’s agenda is austerity for the poor and welfare for the rich. Austerity is the process of cutting public services and shrinking the welfare state — reducing the living standards of working class people in the process. But it’s not austerity across the board. Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ stated goal of reducing the government’s budget deficit is directly undermined by the Coalition’s generous tax cuts for the rich, handouts to businesses and increases in spending on defence and law-and-order. Cuts are being made to departments which benefit the public as a whole, yet there is money for prisons, the police and the military, and the top 1% are being rewarded handsomely.
The Rich Listers were asked by NBR to outline their ideas of how to improve the country. Bryce Edwards highlighted the key items on their agenda: making it easier for foreign billionaires to buy NZ property; reducing regulation and “red tape;” cutting corporate taxes and creating more tax loopholes for the wealthy. A 2023 Inland Revenue investigation found that the wealthiest New Zealanders pay less than half the tax rate of the average Kiwi household; if those interviewed by NBR had their way, millionaires and billionaires would pay even less.
Growing Opposition to Oligarchy
Multiple surveys of NZ voters show declining levels of trust in government and business alongside an alarming lack of faith that the future will be better than today. The 2025 Acumen Edelman Trust Barometer found that 67% of New Zealanders hold a sense of grievance against business, government and the rich, compared to 62% of Australians and 59% of Americans. Just 19% of New Zealanders believe that the next generation will be better off than they are today.
50% of respondents to a recent report by the Helen Clark Foundation said that they feel isolated from others either ‘some of the time’ or ‘often’ — among under 30s, this number rises to 65%. 25% reported that they sometimes or often go without meals due to financial constraints; this rises to 44% of Māori respondents and 48% of Pasifika. 69% of all respondents agreed that the gap between the rich and the poor is too high. 11% believe that our system of government should be entirely replaced; 27% believe that major change is needed, 37% favour minor changes, while just 17% agree that “the system of government works fine.”
Discontent in society is simmering to the surface. The ACT Party’s attempts to rewrite Te Tiriti o Waitangi have provoked tens of thousands to take to the streets in defiance. The Fast-track Bill has been met with resistance from environmentalists fighting back against pollution in the name of corporate greed. The Palestinian community and their allies rally every weekend to demand the government takes action to end Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and its aggression against Iran and Lebanon.
Yet resistance to the austerity agenda, to attacks on public services and to the social safety net, has been muted. The Council of Trade Unions has held rallies each May Day and Labour Day, and plenty of rhetoric has flown around about this being a government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich, but there has been no mass movement fighting to overturn the neoliberal economic system that is tearing apart the fabric of our society. Meanwhile, the Coalition and its billionaire backers continue to drive the country towards oligarchy, towards a Dickensian Aotearoa where the ever-higher cost-of-living locks working class New Zealanders out of a better future at the same time as a tiny fraction of people sit like dragons guarding their vast hoards of gold.
Rangatahi Fight Back
Last Saturday saw seeds of hope emerge in the form of the Hīkoi to House Our Rangatahi — a march from Auckland’s Karangahape Road along the footpath down to Britomart.
The hīkoi was organised through the youth development organisation Kick Back Make Change, by rangatahi who are currently experiencing homelessness. Auckland Action Against Poverty, Kaiāwhina Tāmaki, ActionStation and System Change Aotearoa were among the organisations who supported the march. Eru Kapa-Kingi spoke for the Toitū Te Tiriti movement, whilst Ricardo Menéndez March and Shanan Halbert spoke on behalf of the Greens and the Labour Party respectively.
I spoke on behalf of System Change. In the past few years I have organised dozens of protests and attended hundreds, and I must say that I have rarely been as moved and inspired as I was by the rangatahi who shared their stories with us on Saturday.
The original idea for the hīkoi came about when two of the young people from Kick Back attended a meeting with National Party MP Tama Potaka — Minister for Māori Development and Associate Minister for Housing. They realised that Potaka had no idea what he was talking about, had no idea what it was like to grow up without safe and secure housing, and had no inclination to solve the youth homelessness crisis that Aotearoa is currently facing. Auckland experienced a 53% increase in rough sleeping between September 2024 and January this year.
Participants in the hīkoi arrived at Britomart for speeches, and heard the powerful words of Kahu, the rangatahi spokesperson who shared the devastating story of her friend who she recently lost due to the homelessness crisis. The hīkoi was called in his name. Kahu called for resistance, demanding an end to the colonial system which has thrown so many Māori into the streets on their own whenua.
These courageous young people should not have needed to call a protest. The hīkoi fell the day before their friend’s birthday. They should have been celebrating with him. His death was entirely preventable. His blood is on the hands of the government, and the ministers whose decisions have made it harder to access emergency housing.
Aaron Hendry, founder of Kick Back, made an impassioned call in his speech to those who have power to make change.
“We talk about homelessness as if it’s just this thing that happens, but it is a crisis and people are dying. This is not just something we can allow to continue.
When we had a virus that none of us could see, we acted. We got up as a collective, as a nation, and we said we will solve this, we will fix it, we will care for each other. But every day up and down this street, we can see our whānau suffering, our children suffering, our kids dying and we do not act.
Today is a day for action, a reminder that it is time for us to end this.”
Building a Mass Movement
So what exactly are the 119 Rich Listers giving back? They’ve given us a cruel government which throws young people out onto the streets. How exactly are they growing our country’s fortunes? They’re growing their own fortunes while thousands go hungry. Should we celebrate their success, Prime Minister? Or should we look upon these billionaires and multi-millionaires with disgust? For it is their hoarding of wealth, the power they hold over society, that has created such poverty.
Aotearoa is a nation with an abundance of resources. To create a decent society for all, where housing is a human right, where everyone has a livable income, where everyone has free access to world-class healthcare, education and public transport, and where everyone can afford to eat nutritious meals every day, would not be difficult. We could be living in that version of Aotearoa right now. But instead we live in this one — the Aotearoa of extreme wealth on the one hand and extreme poverty on the other.
The public does not support this unequal system. Survey after survey shows growing discontent. People are sick and tired of the housing crisis, of the cost-of-living going up, of public services getting worse. People are sick and tired of wealthy oligarchs dominating our society.
The Rich Listers are not immeasurably richer than the rest of us because they are better than us. They are not smarter, they are not more creative, they are not more worthy, and they are most certainly not more compassionate.
They are able to hold on to their hoarded wealth because they are highly organised. They set up publications such as the National Business Review to promote their interests. They donate huge sums to National, ACT and NZ First, and lobby to ensure that even if the Labour Party is elected, their interests will not truly be threatened. The ruling class knows how to defend itself.
The Coalition’s austerity agenda represents a direct attack on the living standards of the working class of Aotearoa. This agenda relies on division; ACT’s assault on Te Tiriti o Waitangi is deliberately intended to polarise society and divide Māori against Pākehā, just as attacks on beneficiaries and homeless people are packaged in terms of punishing the “undeserving poor,” and NZ First’s demonisation of LGBT communities aim to spread homophobic and transphobic hatred.
The sudden changes to pay equity claims were designed to manufacture support for significant budget cuts by pitting male workers against female workers. Ministers framed low-paid women as asking for too much. The same rhetoric was strangely absent when Luxon waxed lyrical about the success of the Rich Listers.
Attacking several sectors of society at once has the pernicious effect of dividing activists into single-issue groups all fighting their own battles at the same time. We are overwhelmed, too often unable to see the bigger picture and fight back together.
But the Coalition’s austerity agenda can be weaponised by activists and turned against it. We can unify our communities around the common themes of resisting the cuts, resisting the agenda which places profit over people, because the bigger picture is clear: this government and this economic system continue to make the rich richer at the expense of the vast majority of society.
If we can bring together youth protesting against homelessness, women fighting for fair pay, doctors and nurses fighting to save our healthcare system, environmentalists fighting the Fast-track Bill, beneficiaries protesting sanctions, disabled people fighting funding cuts, the union members who attended Maranga Ake, the tens of thousands who marched in Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, and every other community fighting against inequality and injustice, we will have a mighty movement capable of bringing down this government and transforming society in the interests of the many, not the few.
The rangatahi involved in Kick Back Make Change shared a powerful message on last Saturday’s hīkoi. They stood up and fought back. Hundreds of people joined them. They serve as an inspiration to all of us.
It is time for thousands more to take to the streets. It is time for us to re-learn the power of organisation. Through trade unions, community organisations and political parties, we must stand together and fight for our interests. If we don’t, the Rich Listers will continue to get their way, and our society will continue falling into ever-more extreme inequality.
The top 1% are waging a class war. It’s time for the 99% to start fighting back.
Elliot Crossan is an ecosocialist writer and activist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is the Chair of System Change Aotearoa. Subscribe to his Substack to read more.
