There has been a lot of talk recently about equality in New Zealand coinciding with the rise in popularity of reactionary groups who don't know much about New Zealand history, yet believe this history they are so ignorant of, has no bearing on the way our society is structured today.
New Zealand is not equal, and it never has been. However, a cynical manufactured crisis started by the National Party campaign staff in 2004, has baited many New Zealanders into believing that this inequality stems from both the poorest in our society, and also from those that have been historically disadvanted the most.
This fabricated fantasy implies that there has never been inequality, and that there is especially none in our society today. Essentially the idea can be distilled into the notion that anyone who is not rich only has themselves to blame, and we all have equal opportunities for social mobility in New Zealand.
This just isn't the case.
We have been divided by race, gender, and most importantly income throughout the past 200 years. These divisions have had the effect of leading to infighting between those that need help in New Zealand most (the workers), rather than there being a concerted attack against our corrupt and morally bankrupt economic system that transfers wealth from the poor and most vulnerable, to the rich and powerful that don't need it.
We now live in a society with a Prime Minister who received state housing, free education, and grew up with a social safety net that allowed him to excel in life without the pressure of poverty that a state without a safety net would have all but guaranteed him.
This same man who made his millions in unethical trading for American investment banks that presided over the single largest theft of wealth from the poor to the rich in human history, was also the key swing vote in assuring the change in direction of the National party, that would almost single handedly spark a lot of these fake fears that divide the workers in New Zealand today.
Additionally, he and his capitalist cronies are taking these same privileges that they grew up with away from the youth of New Zealand today to make up for their long term losses. They do this by claiming that the safety net is being abused, and that it will stop people being motivated to better their lives - even though the safety net helping them didn't lead them to a life of sloth, but allowed them to make something of themselves. They are also targeting these benefits because they know that this sector can not vote against this change (indicating further what a sham our democracy has become in New Zealand).
Let's be clear - it is their policies that are making your pay packets smaller. It is not the unemployed, or the poor, or the sick. It is structural unfairness, and this unfairness is cemented by when they manage to pit struggling workers against each other who feel (incorrectly) that they are subsidising a life of luxury for the lazy.
This is an examination (albeit a very, very, very, very, very brief general examination) of inequality in New Zealand since colonisation through today, to show that the playing field isn't equal, and that we can do better than playing into the politics that are both intellectually and ethically void.
We can change things and we can make equality together if workers stop blaming each other and stop buying into the divisions that benefit the plutocrats of Aotearoa. This is our country not theirs - it's time to take it back.