Logie Jan: Imprest Supply DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Imprest Supply Debate[Sitting date: 06 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12388. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Third ReadingJAN LOGIE (Green):There are times when I listen to speeches in this House and I do indeed feel as though I am living on another planet. I have just heard the member for Maungakiekie and I do believe he is living on “Planet Key” that same planet that has no toilets and has nobody who needs to clean the toilets. His is a different world indeed from the world I live in and the world that many people I speak to live in.I want to speak today about inequality and how it has been grown by this Government and the agenda it has to benefit the wealthy of this country. I want to point to the latest NBR New Zealand Rich List announced a couple of weeks ago which saw an increase of $3.5 billion in total minimum net worth in 2012 amongst the richlisters in this country. Their combined value is now worth $47.9 billion. I think it is also worth noting that there are no individual women in that top 10. We are being fed this message from this Government and previous Governments that well these people at the top they have earned this and they have contributed so much to New Zealand that they are worth this money.I would like to point them to some UK research quoted in the bookInequality: A New Zealand Crisis  by MaxRashbrooke. It looks at different returns on investment from different areas of work. It says that British researchers have found that highly paid investment bankers by engaging in predatory lending and contributing to financial crises have actually destroyed £7 of wider social economic and environmental value for every £1 they have created. That is a net loss from some of the wealthiest people in Western economies who have sucked out £7 worth of value from that wider economy for every £1 they have contributed. That is in contrast to say very low-paid staff workers in childcare centres who nurture the future generations. They add. For every £1 they are given they contribute between £7 and £9.50 in value.Those are the values that this Government is perpetuating—this misplaced emphasis and value on the people who are actually sucking wealth from our shared collective contribution. They are sucking out that wealth and channelling it to themselves. That is who is being valued by this Government in New Zealand. It is really important to note that this is not just a foreign problem; this is an issue in this country. Currently the top5 percent of the population in New Zealand own over 50 percent of New Zealand’s net worth—50 percent. The top 5 percent in New Zealand—5 percent—own half of the net worth in this country. I do not believe that that is justifiable. I do not believe that anybody has worked hard enough that 5 percent should own 50 percent. The bottom 50 percent of New Zealanders own—let us see take a guess—5 percent of our shared wealth and 20 percent of children in this country are living in inequality and poverty.It does not have to be this way. The policies of this Government create this inequality and it does not serve any of us because we all lose out from inequality. It shows up in higher crimes rates it shows up in a lack of recycling and it shows up in teen pregnancy rates. It shows up in a huge range of social measures that we all lose out from. If we would only take some sensible initiatives like introducing a capital gains tax increasing the bargaining powers of workers to be able to get more of a fair claim of that wealth changing our monetary policy and investing in regional economic initiatives then maybe we could actually have a society where everyone had a fair share recognising that it was a collective wealth to begin with.