The Big Kahuna

One day, when he was contributing to the Tax and Welfare Working Group, economist Gareth Morgan made an off-the-cuff remark that the solution to all of New Zealand's tax and welfare woes lay in abolishing the present welfare system and radically overhauling the tax system. He called this idea the big kahuna.

One day, when he was contributing to the Tax and Welfare Working Group, economist Gareth Morgan made an off-the-cuff remark that the solution to all of New Zealand's tax and welfare woes lay in abolishing the present welfare system and radically overhauling the tax system. He called this idea the big kahuna. The Big Kahuna takes as its base assumption that we don't, as a society, accept that huge differences in income are acceptable and that we therefore choose to redistribute wealth. While they are generally regarded as separate, the tax and welfare systems are fundamentally both methods of doing just that - redistributing income from those who have plenty to those who don't. In a nutshell, The Big Kahuna seeks to show that if the job of redistributing wealth and income is worth doing, it's worth doing properly, so that the resulting system is fair to all, rich and poor alike.

Dr Gareth Morgan is an economist, public policy analyst, portfolio investor, motorcycle adventurer and philanthropist. Through the Morgan Foundation Gareth has instigated a series of books on issues of public interest. He has also co-authored with his wife Joanne, 5 books on their offshore motorcycle trips, and has written three books on personal investment. See ‘Other Titles’ for more information. His latest project “Our Far South” set out to raise New Zealanders’ awareness of the importance of the area between Stewart Island and the South Pole – the race for resources, the sensitivity of Antarctica to climate change and the threat to biodiversity or our subantarctic islands from overfishing, marine pollution and climate change. This project led on to Gareth’s participation in further conservation projects – Predator Free New Zealand, Million Dollar Mouse, Stewart Island Treasure, and New Zealand’s Cleanest River. Gareth is a shareholder in Welnix, which owns the Wellington Phoenix Football team and part of the Hurricanes rugby franchise. Gareth’s directorships have included a national legal firm, publicly listed companies, advisory boards of government departments, New Zealand’s largest web site auction house TradeMe Ltd, and Leite Verde SA a Brazilian dairy industry business. Gareth graduated from Victoria University with a PhD in economics 1982.