Verity Johnson: This isn’t the New Zealand I know any more

Thursday, 30 April 2026

Beneath the knee jerk wistfulness, there’s a deep worry; we’ve somehow betrayed a foundational idea of being Kiwi.

Verity Johnson is an Auckland-based writer and business owner.

OPINION: In a blackly funny way, it’s very fitting that TVNZ cancelled Fair Go two years ago.

I don’t mean literally. I goddamn loved that programme in the same warm, reassuring way I love getting ribs at Lonestar on deeply hungover Sundays. It gives one the feel of homely stability, at a time when everything feels shaky.

But it’s certainly a very fitting black metaphor for living in NZ right now. The cancelling of that iconic Kiwi show, champion of the iconic Kiwi values, sums up the last couple of years aptly.

We, New Zealand, have cancelled our national promise of ‘The Fair Go’.

You know exactly what I’m talking about. That foundational, hand on heart, put on your bucket hat and lay a hand on the holy buzzy bee promise that this is the country of egalitarianism. Not necessarily the idea we should all be totally equal. But rather that everyone gets an equal chance at making a good life. Like in Australia. Just not as angry.

“Almost one-third of households can’t make enough money to cover the basics.”

It was expressed in NZ, back in the 1800s and 1900s, that here, “Jack’s as good as his master”. NZ was a country where Jack got fair pay, a fair future, and a fair shot at owning a house - just like his master did. And we, more or less, honoured that.

(Although obviously every national ideal is part truth, part myth, part selective memory and a huge dollop of Sunday night BBQ sauce.)

But in the last decade, it’s felt increasingly like this isn’t true any more. That’s what I hear, beneath the nostalgia, when someone says, “This isn’t the New Zealand I know any more.”

Beneath the knee-jerk wistfulness, there’s a deep worry - we’ve somehow betrayed a foundational idea of being Kiwi.

It’s the subtext beneath all the exit interviews conducted with all the people leaving NZ every day. When asked by the fascinated media, they all say the same thing: I can’t get ahead, I’m living pay cheque to pay cheque, buying a house feels hopeless, and NZ is becoming a land of haves and have-nots.

“Buying a house feels hopeless for many Kiwis who feel they can’t get ahead.”

Beneath the very practical concerns, it’s the same existential message. NZ has broken its promise. You don’t get a fair go any more. If you want one, you have to leave.

But it's not just the young saying this from the departure lounge. I must hear it at least once a week back here. So much so I put it out on LinkedIn the other day, asking if anyone else keeps hearing it too?

An avalanche of responses came back: Yes, everyone’s saying it; no, it’s not just nostalgia. It’s a rising realisation we’re turning into a country of haves and have-nots.

“When people say ‘it doesn’t feel like home any more’, I hear people feeling squeezed, uncertain, and a bit scared,” says Dr Chris Taua, mental health and cultural safety educator. She travels across Aotearoa, working alongside kaimahi supporting some of our most vulnerable.

“Because right now, the gap between those who are doing well and those who are barely holding on is getting wider - and it’s visible.”

What Dr Taua put her finger on isn’t a feeling, it’s a fact.

As author and inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke reveals in his book, Too Much Money, New Zealand had the developed world’s largest rise in inequality in the two decades from 1985.

The gap between the wealthy and comfy, and everybody else, has never been bigger.

“We pay lip service to the idea of Jack’s fair go,” says Rashbrooke, “but there’s definitely a growing sense that it isn’t a reality any more. The opportunities available to Jack are definitely not the same as those available to his master.”

He points to academic Bill Rosenthal' s research on what has happened to the average working person’s pay as a result of the 1991 Employment Contracts Act.

Many New Zealanders say they are living pay cheque to pay cheque.

Very simply, since 1991, much more of the income a company gets has gone to its owners, rather than to those on the front lines. Pre 1991, 70% of the company’s revenue went to the workers. Now, it’s about 60%. That equates to Jack being $14k poorer today than he would have been if that shift in power never happened. And it’s seriously impacting Jack’s life.

Casually, without slipping into the kind of economics wonk that about three people in Wellington care about, what’s your idea of a fair go? I’d say: Can you make enough money to buy the basics of living? Can you save a little bit over? Can you buy a house?

And the deeply depressing answer to that is a dark trinity of “no”s.

Almost one-third of households can’t make enough money to cover the basics. Research recently released by New Zealand Food Network, shows almost 1 in 3 households are finding it hard to cope on their present income.

Even typically ‘middle class’ ones are struggling; 29% of median income households ($65k - $156k per household per year) and 12% of affluent ones ($155k+ a year) are experiencing food insecurity.

Even more unfairly, now you can be in full-time work and still need a foodbank. Thirty percent of people in full-time employment are experiencing food insecurity. And the truly grim fact is that a large part of the reasons behind this, especially for lower income families, is housing costs.

“A significant portion of our workforce are on minimum wage and a little bit more,” says Gavin Findlay, CEO of New Zealand Food Network.

“Now if you’re on 40 hours a week, 25 bucks an hour, you’re taking home about $820 a week after tax.” And if a three-bed house is $600 or $700 …

“Gone are the days of making it on your own, now buying a home often depends on wealthy parents.”

“Anecdotally, we’ve heard stories of housing costs rising to 60, 70, even 80% of these families’ take home pay.” Causing families to literally choose between rent and food.

Unsurprisingly, given all this, we’re not able to save.

Rashbrooke points to research by Geoff Bertram, finding that by the late 2000s, only two groups of New Zealanders were consistently saving, and able to build wealth, high earners and those whose income comes mainly from property.

At this point, it feels ridiculous to even ask, but what about buying a house? Well, you can. But you’ll need grit, sweat, and rich parents. By 2022, the Bank of Mum and Dad (BOMD) has become the country’s fifth biggest lender. It doled out $22.6 billion in home loans. (For reference, that’s more than Kiwibank.) The average amount being $108k. And in Auckland, 58% of parents lend a hand to help their adult kids buy.

Economist Shamubeel Equab summed it up neatly a few years ago when he said home ownership is becoming, “the purview of those with property lineage – the landed gentry”.

Gone are the days of Jack making it on his own. Now, it’s about him having wealthy parents.

It’s no wonder that people feel we’ve lost our way.

But the one silver lining is at least we know it. “I’m not convinced we’ve lost our values,” concludes Dr Taua. “I think we’re being confronted by how far we are away from them.”

I agree. We know we’ve created a society where, unless Jack’s wealthy and sorted, he’s screwed. And we’re deeply ashamed of that. It’s not the New Zealand we know.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Gordon Findlay’s name.