Basic Income New Zealand Seminar and Annual General Meeting held at Toi Ohomai Institute of technology Rotorua  15 June 2019.

Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea opening  proceedings

Over the four years from the formation of BINZ the committee has been working towards situating Basic Income in the New Zealand context.

Our 4th Basic Income New Zealand AGM, elected the following people as Society Officers for the coming year. Gaylene Middleton: Interim Chairperson, Andrew Casey: Secretary, Meleissa Selwyn: Treasurer, with the Committee comprising Iain Middleton, Bella Moke, and Karl Matthys. The role of a chairperson is to facilitate the skills of the group as a whole and in 2018 we found that this concept worked very well by cycling the Interim Chairperson position among us. Te Rangikaheke and Andrew both fulfilled this role for 2018 and Gaylene will continue for the first part of the coming year’s activity. We also extend grateful thanks to Michael Kane who has stepped down from his position as Secretary for his valued contributions and involvement with committee work. Michael also previously held the Treasurer role for two years. We wish Michael every success in the future.

A Seminar preceded the AGM: What is our next step? Basic Income and how it is perceived in the WEAG Report and the 2019 Budget

With the advent of the ground breaking concept of the Wellbeing Budget of our present Labour Government an opportunity presented itself to explore how Basic Income contributes to wellbeing.

In Guy Standing’s The Precariat, the New Dangerous Class (2011), Guy wrote: “A good society needs people to have empathy, a capacity to project oneself into another’s situation.” An empathic approach to each other creates an ambience of wellbeing.

Basic Income contributes to wellbeing as it is a payment to everyone usually resident in a country. It is a regular payment to an individual. It is an unconditional payment as there is no means testing, no spending conditions, and no behavioural conditions. Basic Income is a departure from the punitive aspects that the New Zealand Welfare system has developed over the past years.

Our seminar explored how Basic Income touches on Wellbeing.Unfortunately due to changes in flight schedules from Australia Matthew Tukaki (Executive Chairman of the National Maori Authority of New Zealand (Ngangaru), chair of the New Zealand Maori Council (Auckland District) and NZMC National Executive member) was unable to attend and speak to us.The forecast bad weather also prevented Kay Brereton (Advocate Beneficiaries and Unwaged Workers Trust) from flying up from Nelson to speak to us.We were most fortunate to have the skilled chairpersonship of Merepeka Raukawa-Tait who ably introduced our speakers and at the Seminar conclusion gave us a very clear summing up.Julie Nathan and Mark Agee spoke about their experience of the New Zealand Welfare and Benefit System. Julie spoke to us about why we need to step into the brave new world of Basic Income. Julie has experienced the impact of a change from a professional career to full time carer.Mark spoke about the urgent need to improve security in the face of uncertain employment. Mark has ridden the unemployment rollercoaster on and off for 20 years and a Basic Income would have provided an underlying security.Gail Duncan gave us a superb presentation on the “Status of Beneficiaries in NZ”. Gail began her presentation with the observation that “Any New Zealander can go quickly from relative security to nothing.” The life experiences of Julie and Mark attested to this.In her presentation, Gail had a very powerful slide comparing the freedoms of a waged, salaried or business person with the non- freedoms of the beneficiary.Perce Harpham from Wellington and a long time advocate of Basic Income spoke about his activism within the Labour Party for Basic Income.The seminar concluded with an insightful discussion of the progress of Basic Income (BI) in New Zealand from Sue Bradford who has long been associated with advocating BI from the early 1990’s when her group, the Auckland Unemployed Workers Rights Centre, saw BI as a solution to the growing inequality that was burgeoning in New Zealand society. Sue told us she would like to see “a Basic Income which would provide people with enough support to live a frugal but flourishing life, with the BI indexed to increases in wages and living costs.” Sue also advised us that “it is important not to sugarcoat or underestimate the political and organisational work it will take to achieve the introduction of BI to New Zealand.” text here. Edit to add dynamic values like name, email and more.

Read the Chairperson's report here:

Gail Duncan's article "The Status of Beneficiaries in NZ" can be read at:

Gail's Slideshow may be viewed here:

Sue Bradford's talk can be read here:

Videos of the Seminar may be viewed here:

Attendance at 19th World Basic Income Congress 22 August 2019 until 25 August 2019 in Hyderabad, India.

New Zealand will be well represented at this international Congress. Bella Moke, Meleissa Selwyn, Iain Middleton and Gaylene Middleton will travel to India to attend this international gathering. Peter Brake from Awanui Northland, a long time advocate for Basic Income in New Zealand, will also attend and present a paper. A report from the Congress will be included in a future newsletter. It will be a first time experience of the monsoon season for all of us. The temperature will be around 32degerees Celsius during the day with 22 degrees in the evening .Showers are expected every day with thunder on the Sunday.

Submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill by Basic Income New Zealand:

Before BINZ can be granted an exemption from Resident Withholding Tax on interest and dividends we must have an Income Tax exemption. Inland Revenue has checked our Constitution and we must make a change before non profit status can be granted. See the amendment here:

Any comments or questions : binzcontact @gmail.com