Too Much Money

Today, someone in the wealthiest one percent of adults in Aotearoa – a club of 40,000 people – has a net worth 68 times that of the average New Zealander.

Max Rashbrooke’s Too Much Money is the story of how wealth inequality is changing Aotearoa. Possessing wealth creates opportunities but when access to these opportunities becomes alarmingly uneven, the implications are profound.

This talk addresses a conversation most New Zealanders prefer to avoid: class. Chief Philanthropic Officer at the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i speaks with Rashbrooke and final Chair of Auckland District Health Board and company director, Pat Snedden about the evidence of - and the possible solutions to - our inequality issues, and asks us to consider whether we really can reduce wealth disparities to a point where most people are doing well.

Sponsored by BDO

Accessibility: Wheelchair friendly event

Max Rashbrooke is a Wellington-based writer and public intellectual, with twin interests in economic inequality and democratic renewal. His latest book is Too Much Money: How Wealth Disparities are Unbalancing Aotearoa New Zealand, based on research he carried out as the 2020 J. D. Stout Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington.

Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i

Tupe is the Chief Philanthropic Officer of the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, which is working towards an Aotearoa New Zealand that is just, inclusive, tolerant, and free.

In addition to her professional role, the Samoan, Fijian, Kiwi is passionate about advocating for a more inclusive society. She is the writer and co-producer of a web series on unconscious bias, Misadventures of a Pacific Professional, the host, and co-producer of a chat show on Pacific success, Talanoa with Tupe, and the theme of her talk at TEDx Pipitea 2021 was “Leading through self-acceptance.”

In 2020 Tupe was recognised as one of the University of Auckland’s 40 under 40 and was the winner of the diversity category in the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards. In 2021, she was named as one of New Zealand’s most Influential Lawyers by NZ Lawyer in the category of Human Rights, Advocacy and Criminal Justice.

Pat Snedden

Pat Snedden has a history in health dating back to 1992 where he was part of the setting up of a bicultural community health coalition for primary care called Health Care Aotearoa.

He chaired the Counties and Auckland District Health Board from 2003 to 2010 and took over at Auckland again in 2018. For six years he chaired Housing New Zealand Corporation and established the Hobsonville Land Company where he chaired the Board for five years and he set up the Tamaki Transformation Programme for the development of Glen Innes, Point England and Panmure. At the same time he was a director of Watercare and a trustee of the ASB Community Trusts.

He has been a treaty negotiator for over 35 years both for iwi (Ngāti Whātua) and for the Crown as the chief crown negotiator in the Muriwhenua, Heretaunga and Wairoa settlements. He was a founding director of Mai FM, the first commercial Maori radio station. Since 2011 he has chaired the Manaiakalani Education Trust that provides high end technology to support the application of digital tools and pedagogical innovation serving low decile communities.

In 2018 he was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education and to Māori.