Labour says income inequality has to be addressed, with the wealthiest New Zealanders now eight times richer than the least wealthy.
The Labour Party is signalling major reform of the social welfare system that it founded, saying it will investigate "new models of income security for New Zealand, including considering a limited trial of a universal basic income."
The policy commitment is one of "10 Big Ideas" outlined at the start
of the party's two-day Future of Work conference in Auckland, which leader Andrew Little said was a contribution to "a worldwide debate about one of the biggest public policy challenges we face today" and comes half-way through a policy development process Labour hopes will reposition it ahead of the 2017 election after losing at the polls in 2008, 2011 and 2014.
The UBI commitment is the most radical of the ideas outlined, although the scale of the initial trial indicates how cautious the party is about whether the concept can be made to work.
The concept is to replace the current range of social welfare and other benefits with an equal payment to every citizen, irrespective of income, to deliver sufficient income for adequate living standards, especially in a period of fast-changing transition in the work force. The UBI would be paid for by higher taxes on higher incomes and structured to prevent a beneficiary who finds work being penalised as the UBI would not reduce as they start earning.
As a further step, Labour would abolish secondary tax, as well as further strengthening rights to collective bargaining.
