Discussion
We've now got 2 NZ parties with a realistic chance of getting MPs, who have policy for some kind of minimum income/ UBI. The Greens, with their Income Guarantee;
(EDIT: maybe not?)
... and Opportunity with their Citizen's Income;
https://www.opportunity.org.nz/tax-reset
The potential benefits of this seem fairly obvious, so I think the sticking point for most people will be the cost. This may seem counterintuitive, but it may actually cost less than what we do now.
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But wait, it seems I may have given the Greens more credit than they deserve;
"Recipients would be able to earn up to $200 a week before their payments reduced."
#SusanEdmunds, 2025
So unless they've modified their Income Guarantee policy since May last year, it's *not* actually a UBI/ GMI policy at all. Just a marginally more generous version of the existing means-tested benefit system.
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I tried to find the official Income Guarantee policy on the Greens website, but its a nightmare to navigate, and every time I tried to find it using web search (a range of them), I kept being linked to pages that don't appear to exist anymore.
Can anyone link me to a canonical source there, or recent media article that accurately reports what it currently says?
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@strypey there's obviously some reorganization going on - even some cross-links between policies are broken - but the list at https://www.greens.org.nz/policy#policy-list has working links.
The Livelihood policy is the one that talks about establishing and guaranteeing a minimum income.
@jbowtie
> The Livelihood policy is the one that talks about establishing and guaranteeing a minimum income
Thanks. Found that, thanks to a link posted by @RFPatterson. Here's my take on it;
Thanks for the link @RFPatterson. Clicking through to the more detailed version of the policy, it does appear that they've pulled back from advocating any kind of UBI/GMI. Instead, they just want to paint the existing system a nicer colour, which can be effortlessly reversed by a future austerity government (as it has been since 2023).
This is very disappointing, and a reason for progressives to consider a vote for Opportunity and the Citizen's Income instead.
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@jeremy_pm
> The Greens are also proposing a tax free threshold of zero income tax paid on the first $10,000 earned
I can see why this seems like a vote winner (everyone seems to love tax cuts). But I not sure it's actually good policy, for at least a couple of reasons.
Anyway, I do want to offer some back-of-the-envelope numbers on this. But it seems I need to do some reading first, to make sure I'm reporting current policy accurately, on all counts.
In brief though, opponents will likely hold up the total cost figure as likely to bankrupt the country. This is misleading. A sensible UBI/GMI policy would replace most existing core benefits - including NZ Super and Working for Families - and massively reduce the cost of administrating the welfare system.
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A UBI/GMI would make it much simpler, and less scary, for people without fulltime jobs to take casual and part-time paid work, and pay tax on it.
The current system makes taking paid work while on a benefit so scary that people often turn it down. Or take it, but avoid declaring it to IRD if they can, to avoid the headaches this creates with WINZ. Which can include them assuming one-off work is fulltime, and cutting off benefits, resulting in weeks of paperwork and stress to get it back.
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