New Zealand Rich List exceeds $100 billion amid cost-of-living crisis

John Braddock

New Zealand’s Rich List, compiled annually by the National Business Review (NBR), boasted last week that the country’s wealthiest are now collectively worth more than $NZ100 billion. The figure increased from $95.55 billion in 2024, despite a brutal cost-of-living crisis and two recessions in the past 18 months.

The nation of just 5.3 million people now has 18 billionaires, up from 16 last year. A dozen newcomers, with $4.3 billion, are among 119 individuals and families profiled by the NBR, who altogether have a total of $102.1 billion—equal to more than 40 percent of the country’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Like similar reports posted internationally, the NZ list points to soaring wealth among a tiny privileged layer, even amid a gathering global economic crisis. Nine years ago the 2016 Rich List’s wealth was just under $60 billion, rising to  $72.6 billion two years ago.

Commenting on the rapid increase in the concentration of wealth, Bryce Edwards, director of the Integrity Institute, noted: “We are witnessing inequality grow towards heights approaching those of the early 20th century.” He described it as “a roadmap of oligarchic power in New Zealand, complete with policy wish lists, political connections, and breathtaking displays of luxury that would make a Gilded Age robber baron blush.”

New Zealand is already an extremely unequal society. According to Statistics NZ’s Household Economic Survey in 2021, the richest 5 percent of individuals owned 43.1 percent of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50 percent held just 2.1 percent.

Nick and Anna Mowbray [Photo: Zuru]

Brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray, who with sister Anna Mowbray, founded Zuru Toys in 2003, topped the Rich List with $20 billion. The pair have been outspoken about their ambitions to be “the next Apple, Google, Tesla” with a target of $10 billion in revenue within five years.

Former list leader Graeme Hart is second, with an estimated net worth of $12.1 billion. Hart built his global packaging empire following his purchase of the state-owned Government Printing Office, for a vastly undervalued $23 million, during the 1984–90 Lange Labour government’s public asset fire sale.

Others to feature were prominent filmmaker Peter Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh, at fifth richest with a net worth of $2.6 billion.

This year the NBR also launched a Women’s Rich List, headed by Anna Mowbray and Lucy Liu, co-founders of online payments company Airwallex. Liu’s company was valued at more than $10 billion in a capital raise in May. The publication profiled 14 women, all of them estimated to be worth between $20 and $100 million.

The celebration of a handful of super-rich women comes after the right-wing coalition government last month passed the Equal Pay Amendment Act, designed to make it almost impossible for workers in female-dominated professions to claim that they are underpaid because of gender-based inequity.

The primary source of the Rich Listers’ fortunes is not the production of socially necessary goods and services. Their vast wealth derives almost entirely from parasitic activities such as financial investment and property speculation.

Viaduct Harbour Holdings, owned by the Gibbs, Wyborn, Farmer and Green families—all of whom regularly appear on the Rich List—leases out areas of the expensive Auckland harbour waterfront to the hospitality, sports and accommodation sectors. The Gibbons, Guntons, Carters, and Wallaces have all built their fortunes on property development.

A 2023 Inland Revenue Department (IRD) investigation into the wealth of the country’s 311 richest individuals found that only 7 percent of their income is in a form subject to income tax. The remaining 93 percent comes from returns on investment, including financial assets and capital gains—all of which is either not taxed, or taxed at a lower rate than incomes.

This privileged layer paid tax on their earnings at a rate of just 8.9 percent—less than half the 20 percent rate paid by someone on the average wage. Well-off New Zealanders are paying less tax than their peers in nine similar OECD nations, including Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, and five European countries, according to a Victoria University of Wellington study commissioned by Tax Justice Aotearoa last year.

In 2024, New Zealand and Belgium were the only two OECD countries not to have a capital gains tax—though Belgium had other wealth taxes, which New Zealand does not. None of this prevents the wealthy elite from endlessly agitating for cutting corporate taxes, privatising public services, slashing welfare and cutting government “bureaucracy,” all while seeking incentives for private sector “risk takers.”

The recent King’s Birthday Honours awards celebrated former National Party finance minister Ruth Richardson, appointing her as a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit. Richardson is reviled in the working class for her infamous 1991 “Mother of all Budgets” which savagely cut welfare and thrust thousands of beneficiaries into poverty, imposing conditions of misery that still exist.

The main opposition Labour Party meanwhile has consistently rejected any significant increase in tax on wealth. Despite campaigning in the 2017 election for a modest capital gains tax, in 2019 Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ruled it out. Her stance was endorsed by current leader Chris Hipkins.

The Labour Party-Greens government from 2017-2023, like others throughout the world, exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to engineer a huge transfer of wealth to the ultra-rich. Property values and corporate and bank profits soared due to millions in subsidies, bailouts and tax concessions, and the Reserve Bank’s quantitative easing and ultra-low interest rates.

While the country has since had near back-to-back recessions, the impact has fallen entirely on the working class. The NZX50 index increased by 1,500 points or 12.74 percent during 2024, its best performance since 2020. The Reserve Bank’s official cash rate cut from 5.25 to 4.75 percent last October gave the share market, dominated by investments in utilities, infrastructure and real estate, a strong boost in the final quarter of 2024.

Political connections play a critical role in maintaining and boosting the wealth of the richest at the expense of ordinary people. Last year the National Party-led government delivered a massive tax cut for landlords, estimated to have cost $NZ2.9 billion, falsely claiming this would lead to more affordable rents.

At the 2023 election, Rich Listers were among the most generous donors to the coalition parties, National, NZ First and ACT. Nick Mowbray gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to both National and the far-right ACT Party. Graeme Hart donated $700,000 to the right-wing parties over two years—$400k to National, $200k to ACT and $100k to NZ First.

The rich are not shy about flaunting their wealth. Along with mansions and overseas apartments, several, including Peter Jackson, own private jets. Hart runs a multi-million dollar, 102-metre superyacht. A bid by Anna Mowbray and her husband, rugby player Ali Williams, to put a helipad on their property in the exclusive Auckland suburb of Westmere currently faces strong opposition from nearby residents and community groups.

Speaking for the entire ruling class, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon gushed over the NBR’s report: “Isn’t it fantastic that we have got people with ambition, aspiration and positivity, and we should be celebrating success.”

But under Luxon’s government, there is an escalating social disaster. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs and Radio NZ reported on June 9 that the net worth of all households declined by $4.185 billion in 2024.

Already in 2023, 36.1 percent of households were scraping by on income that was either “not enough” or “only just” enough, according to Statistics NZ. In 2024, the Treasury estimated that nearly one-in-five children, 17.7 percent, were living in poverty. The New Zealand Food Network estimated this year that 500,000 people, a tenth of the population, is regularly dependent on food parcels.

Austria: Eleven dead in Graz school shooting

Markus Salzmann

Memorial at the entrance of the Borg-Gymnasium after the shooting on June 10, 2025 [Photo by Armin Ademovic / Wikimedia / CC BY 4.0]

On June 10, a gunman killed ten people and seriously injured eleven others at a school in Graz, Austria. The attack itself lasted only a few minutes. Immediately after police arrived, the perpetrator committed suicide in a school restroom.

The victims were nine teenagers, aged 14 to 17, and a teacher. The gunman, Arthur A., was a former student at the Borg-Gymnasium in Graz. The 21-year-old had dropped out of school after sixth grade. The perpetrator had no relationship with his victims; only the teacher he killed was known to him personally.

A nationwide minute of silence was held on Thursday morning. Flags at all public buildings were flown at half-staff, and Chancellor Christian Stocker (Austrian People’s Party, ÖVP) ordered three days of national mourning. In addition to Stocker, the interior and education ministers of the Vienna government also travelled to Graz.

The school’s students and teachers are still in shock and school operations have been suspended until further notice. The outpouring of sympathy for those killed and injured was profound and extended far beyond the Styrian capital.

While numerous questions surrounding the rampage remain unanswered, there is no doubt that this is the worst murder attack in Austria in decades. In recent days, police have released some information about the course of events and the perpetrator himself.

The 21-year-old, who lived with his mother just outside Graz, had apparently planned the crime down to the last detail. According to investigations, he was armed with a sawn-off shotgun, a semi-automatic Glock pistol, and a hunting knife. A pipe bomb was recovered from his apartment during a subsequent search. However, it was not functional. Investigators assume he lacked the necessary time or knowledge to do so.

Arthur A. apparently shot at students and teachers indiscriminately. When he was found in the school restroom after his suicide, he was wearing a headset. Whether he had contact with anyone before or during the attack has not yet been conclusively determined.

The attack had been planned over a long period of time. The attacker had been undertaking target practice since March and acquired weapons legally in April and May.

A week after the horrific act, the perpetrator’s motive remains unclear but evidence is emerging that he had mental health problems. In 2021, he was found mentally unfit for military service but apparently never received psychiatric or psychological treatment.

He is described as an inconspicuous loner who led an extremely withdrawn life. Photos and previous social media posts suggested that the 21-year-old perpetrator may have been inspired by the school massacre at Columbine High School in the US state of Colorado in April 1999.

Chancellor Stocker and his governing coalition, consisting of the conservative People’s Party, the Social Democrats (SPÖ), and the right-wing neo-liberal Neos, announced in response to the attack that they intend to tighten Austria’s relatively liberal gun laws. A higher minimum age and an aptitude test for gun ownership are under discussion.

In addition, psychological counselling in Austrian schools is to be increased. Government representatives did not explain how this would be reconciled with the comprehensive austerity package passed by the government, which also includes drastic cuts in education.

Instead, voices from all political parties are increasingly seeking to exploit the school shooting to censor social media and expand the powers of the police and other security agencies. Plans include, for example, increased spying on private computers using Trojans and electronic ankle bracelets for dangerous individuals.

The current findings regarding the perpetrator’s motives provide no explanation for the crime, nor are the planned measures suitable for preventing similar acts of violence.

The likely psychological problems only superficially explain this brutal outbreak of violence. Acts like these, which are becoming increasingly common, have deeper societal causes that are deliberately ignored by politicians and the media.

In the US, there have been 6,719 mass shootings since the beginning of 2013, in each of which at least four people were shot dead. But rampages with dozens of deaths have also occurred throughout Europe in recent years—including Austria.

In 1997 and 2018, there were outbreaks of violence in schools in Lower Austria. In a few days, the so-called Graz rampage will mark its tenth anniversary. On June 20, 2015, a 26-year-old drove an SUV through the city center, killing three people and injuring 36 others. The perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment and committed suicide in prison in 2023.

The background to such incidents is the enormous brutalization of society. While state and federal politicians mourn the victims of the rampage, at the same time they fully support NATO’s war against Russia, which could escalate into a nuclear war, and Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.

The three ruling parties, which took office in Vienna this year, is not only calling for tougher action against Russia. With the Neos, a governing party is the first time openly advocating the lifting of Austria’s traditional stance of neutrality and the deployment of Austrian soldiers in combat missions. While the coalition has approved harsh austerity measures in almost all areas, the rearmament of the Austrian army is to be intensified by €16.6 billion until 2032. This is the largest investment plan in the history of the Austrian armed forces.

The contempt for human life is even more evident in the government’s stance on the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s attack on Iran.

After former Federal President Heinz Fischer (SPÖ) recently called on the government to issue a critical statement against Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, Stocker, Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler (SPÖ) and Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger (Neos) responded negatively, declaring that Israel had every right to “respond militarily” to the 2023 Hamas uprising. Even after Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran, the government is merely demanding “caution” from both sides.

The right-wing policies of all established parties have also led to Styria being governed by a state government led by the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) since the end of last year. Under Governor Mario Kunasek, the FPÖ has already initiated widespread attacks on migrants and socially disadvantaged groups. The party also maintains close ties to the violent neo-Nazi scene in Austria and Europe.

Gold now number two reserve asset in international financial system

Nick Beams

A report by the European Central Bank (ECB) issued last week pointed to the growing lack of international confidence in the role of the US dollar as the global reserve currency.

According to the ECB, gold accounted for 20 percent of the global reserves held by central banks, outstripping the euro at 16 percent and coming second to the dollar at 46 percent.

Gold bars on display at anexhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. November 8, 2006 [AP Photo/Seth Wenig]

“Central banks continued to buy gold at a record pace,” the ECB said. In 2024, for the third year in a row, central banks bought more than 1,000 tonnes of gold. This was a fifth of the total production for 2024 and twice the annual amount in the decade 2010‒2019.

The amount of gold now held by central banks is approaching the levels of 1965, the ECB noted. But that was under very different conditions.

At that time on basis of the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, which was one of the foundations of the post-war global financial system after the devastation of the 1930s, the dollar was backed by gold at the rate of $35 per ounce.

In August 1971, US President Nixon unilaterally abrogated the agreement when he went on Sunday night television to announce that the US would no longer honour its commitment to redeem dollars for gold. Sparked by the growing US trade deficit, it was the initial expression of the economic decline of the US from its dominant position at the end of World War II.

The dollar continued as the global currency but on a new basis. It was now a fiat currency which depended on the strength of the US state and its financial system. But that strength has increasingly been called into question by the series of crises which have gripped the US financial system. The most notable was the crisis of 2008, sparked by the escalation of speculation and parasitism in the US economy.

The dollar’s new role gave the US what was characterised as “exorbitant privilege.” Without the restrictions imposed by the need to maintain gold backing, it could increasingly run up debts and deficits in a way not possible for other countries because there would always be an international demand for dollars. And it used the need of other countries for access to dollars to enforce its demands.

Sanctions against Iran, and the threat of sanctions against European companies that tried to buck the US, were a case in point. In March 2022, there was a leap in this process when the US cut Russia off from the SWIFT international payments system and in combination with the European powers froze the assets of the Russian central bank, amounting to around $300 billion.

This decision sent a shock wave through the international monetary system. If the reserves of a central bank could be seized in this way then what was a safe haven—certainly not US dollars.

As the ECB noted in its report: “Gold demand for monetary reserves surged sharply in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has remained high.”

Gold, it said, appeared to be seen as a hedge against actions and the freezing of assets.

“In five of the 10 largest annual increases in the share of gold in foreign reserves since 1999, the countries involved faced sanctions in the same year or the previous year.”

In 2024 the price of gold rose by 30 percent and so far this year has increased by a further 27 percent, at one stage hitting $3,500 per ounce, 100 times its level when Nixon broke the dollar-gold nexus.

Reporting on the ECB analysis, the Financial Times gave some indication of the extent of these concerns.

“A survey among 57 central banks that were holding gold last year also revealed that concerns about sanctions, expected changes in the global monetary system and the desire to become less dependent on the US dollar were drivers in emerging markets and developing countries,” it said.

The ECB data cover last year. Since then, the forces driving the increase in gold holdings have only intensified. A key accelerant was the launching of the Trump administration’s economic war against the world, with China the chief target, with the announcement of massive “reciprocal tariffs” on the so-called “liberation day” of April 2.

The result was a spike in the yields (interest rates) on long-term US debt, as the price of bonds fell—the two have an inverse relationship. This reflected an expectation in markets of growing financial turbulence as a result of the upending of all the relationships governing international trade in the post war period.

Usually in such conditions there is a move into the dollar as a “safe haven.” However, in this case the value of the dollar in international currency markets fell, as there was a widespread move to “sell America”—that is, to shift out of US financial assets.

The Trump tariff war has certainly been a major factor in this process but by no means the only one. Of equal concern has been the rise of US debt, now at $36 trillion and the trillions more which are being added because of the “big, beautiful budget” announced by Trump. Interest payments on the debt are running at almost $1 trillion a year and are fast becoming the biggest item in the US budget.

Despite the pause on the reciprocal tariffs announced by Trump on April 9, when he noted that the bond markets were starting to get a little “yippy,” the shift has continued with the tendency of interest rates, especially on long-term debt, moving upwards while the dollar is continuing to fall.

Last week the dollar dropped by as much as 1 percent against a basket of currencies of its major trading partners, including the pound and the euro, after Trump announced he would be sending letters to countries facing reciprocal tariffs telling them what the rate would be.

The past two months were supposed to be a period of intense negotiations during which the Trump administration would announce major deals. Nothing had eventuated, with the exception of a minor agreement with the UK. Discussions over weeks with Japan, which is in line for a major hit to its auto industry of tens of billions of dollars, has so far produced no result.

At the same time, the concerns in the financial markets have grown with JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon warning that the bond market would “crack” at some point.

This brought a response from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the US would “never, never” default on its debt—a statement which recalled the old saying that one should never believe anything until it is officially denied.

In fact, there have been discussions in leading circles about the possibility of converting long-term Treasury debt into perpetual bonds which never repay the principal but only continue to pay interest. In July 2023 the Congressional Research Service published a report examining this possibility.

Such a move, which has been regularly dismissed would be regarded, especially by Japan and China, as a default, has not been officially discussed in leading international financial circles. But it should be recalled that Nixon’s measures on August 15, 1971 were not discussed either. The financial and economic partners and allies of the US found out about it like everyone else when they saw the president on television—just as they found out about reciprocal tariffs.

Whatever official statements are made about the “resilience” of the US financial system and the continuing role of the dollar as the global reserve currency, the fact remains that for the first time since the development of the new financial system after 1971, gold is now in second place as a key reserve asset.

Demanding “unconditional surrender,” Trump plots assault on Iran

Keith Jones

A firefighter calls out his colleagues at the scene of a bombing in a residence compound in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. [AP Photo/Vahid Salemi]

American imperialism is rushing headlong into war with Iran, assuming direct command of a predatory conflict it has long plotted alongside Israel, its proxy in the Middle East. With US support and encouragement, Israel initiated the onslaught on Iran on the night of June 12.

In a series of bellicose, mafia-style posts on his Truth Social media platform Tuesday, President Donald Trump all but publicly declared that he has ordered the US military to directly enter the war.

Making no distinction between US and Israeli forces, Trump declared, “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.” This was followed by a direct threat to murder Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. “We know exactly where” he “is hiding,” Trump menaced. “We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But … Our patience is wearing thin.”

Some thirty minutes later, Trump demanded Tehran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.”

The US-Israeli war on Iran is an act of brazen criminality. The direct entry of American imperialism into the war will have catastrophic consequences for the people of Iran—a historically oppressed country—as well as for the broader Middle East and the world.

It constitutes a massive escalation in the unfolding US imperialist-led global war. Washington has long viewed its drive to subjugate Iran and exert unfettered dominance over the world’s principal oil-exporting region and key ocean trade routes as critical to preparing for war with China.

US imperialism has never reconciled itself to the 1979 popular uprising that overthrew the monarchical dictatorship of the Shah. In declaring “unconditional surrender” the aim of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump is spelling out in his typical gangster fashion that Wall Street and Washington are intent on reimposing neo-colonial domination over the Iranian people.

In recent days, the US military has been surging warplanes, naval vessels and other war materiel to the region. With B-52s, which are designed to deliver nuclear weapons, now forward deployed, Trump’s call for the 9 million residents of Tehran to flee can only be interpreted as an implicit threat that the Iranian people could be targeted with nuclear bombs.

The corporate US media is repeating the lies of an “imminent threat” by Tehran, used to justify one criminal US-led war after another.

Assured of the support of Washington and the other major imperialist powers, Israel has already expanded the war to target energy infrastructure, the national broadcaster, hospitals and civilians, in addition to nuclear facilities, missile defenses and command structures.

At the same time, the Zionist regime is intensifying its drive to ethnically cleanse and murder the Palestinians of Gaza.

Trump’s statements, beginning with his Friday posts declaring the Israeli attack on Iran “excellent” and that he had been in on the planning, have demonstrated that from its very outset the war was a joint US-Israeli operation.

The White House’s claim that a sixth round of talks would be held in Oman last Sunday between US and Iranian officials on a peaceful resolution to the nuclear conflict was a ruse, designed to lure Iran’s political and military leaders into a death-trap.

While Trump leads the way, the leaders of the other imperialist powers are backing Israel’s criminal assault on Iran. Speaking Tuesday on the sidelines of the G7 summit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed gratitude for Israel’s attack on Iran, saying Israel was doing “the dirty work … for all of us.”

Issued Monday evening, the “G7 Leaders’ statement on recent developments between Israel and Iran” casts Iran as the aggressor, and greenlights escalation of the war. It affirms that “Israel has a right to defend itself;” pledges the imperialist powers’ support “for the security of Israel,” and condemns Iran as “the principal source of regional instability and terror.”

What a lie! It is Israel, not Iran, that illegally acquired nuclear weapons with imperialist assistance, and that refuses any and all International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) oversight of its nuclear program or to otherwise abide by the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And it was Washington that in 2018 abrogated the UN-backed Iran nuclear accord, with Trump unilaterally imposing sweeping, globally-applicable sanctions on Tehran with the aim of crashing Iran’s economy and precipitating regime change. Western intelligence agencies have repeatedly conceded that there is no evidence Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and, even were it to do so, Tehran is years away from fashioning such a weapon.

The criminality and violence of the imperialist powers are rooted in their desperate crisis.

Whatever the initial outcome of the onslaught on Iran, it will ultimately prove a disaster for US imperialism and its Zionist allies.

Washington’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq ended in debacles. Two decades on, American capitalism confronts a deepening debt crisis, is beset by mounting social conflict, and is headed by a criminal oligarch who is attempting to pre-emptively stamp out mass working class opposition by erecting a presidential dictatorship.

Iran is a complex country with a population of over 90 million and a large and militant working class. The imperialist onslaught will radicalize the masses in Iran, across the Middle East, and globally.

The struggle against imperialism and the emerging third world war requires the development of an independent political movement of the working class animated by a socialist internationalist program.

The expanding Mideast war will undoubtedly produce more surprises and shocks. But there is no question that Iran’s bourgeois nationalist regime has been staggered by the initial attack.

This is not principally due to the US-supplied Israeli military having greater firepower and technological savvy. Rather it is rooted in the class character of the Iranian regime. The Iranian bourgeoisie lives in mortal fear of the working class—all the more so in that it has systematically rolled back all the social concessions made to Iran’s workers and toilers in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Revolution.

Organically incapable of making a class appeal to all the oppressed masses—irrespective of ethnicity or religion—of the Middle East, including the Israeli working class, for a joint struggle against imperialism, the Iranian regime has sought to maneuver in the face of relentless US pressure, repeatedly seeking a rapprochement with Washington. In its delusion that it could strike a deal with Trump short of unilateral disarmament—the same Trump who scuttled the original nuclear accord and has threatened on multiple occasions to annihilate Iran—it walked into the trap laid for it by Washington and Tel Aviv.

The US ruling class is giving overwhelming support to this war of aggression. The Democratic Party has stated its support for Israel’s illegal assault on Iran, and Trump’s role in it.

In an interview on NBC Sunday, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff endorsed the attack on Iran, saying, “So I support those actions. And I support the administration’s actions in helping Israel defend itself.” He added that if Iran were to retaliate against US bases, “Iran opens itself up to potential attacks on Fordow [uranium enrichment refinery] or elsewhere.”

The international pseudo-left is silent on the attack on Iran. Addressing rallies over the weekend against Trump’s attack on democratic rights, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib did not even mention the ongoing bombardment of Iran. Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister who helped impose EU austerity on Greece, wrote in a post on X Monday, “Ignore the war with Iran. Iranians can defend themselves.”