Fair dues. The hard-right philosophy of no tax, user pays, and a "level playing field" belies the fact that the wealthy have either/or inherited wealth and high IQ. IQ, not hard work or enterprise, is the single strongest predictor of income, and it is almost exclusively inherited and fixed. You might as well reward those born with an extra toe.

JD, how strange then that Asian immigrants should have such a high IQ and indigenous Maori such a low one?

No, it is stupid ideas and beliefs that cause poverty and educational failure, not genes. I suspect you have just added to the former.

JD#1. My parents would be amazed to learn that they had high IQ's, and that they had inherited their wealth. I'd be stunned too to know that I had also inherited their genetic "high IQ", and massive wealth. I am not the smartest, fastest, or most enterprising, but I do know that hard work, and stress has got us to where we are. And we ain't going to hand it over to some lazy slug who doesn't want to work for it!

Whoa! Gauntlet thrown down to Bruce!

Anyway, is the wealth increase of $5 billion through government handouts?

"If just the extra wealth accruing to the 150 was spread to the lowest paid New Zealanders we would see 450,000 people with pay increases of 30 per cent." Do you suggest seizing their assets and spreading it to the lower income earners?

"We don't need rocket science to do it - just changes in government policy." I would have thought that you would need economic and social science, or at least careful consideration, to evaluate what kind of impact this would have on the society...

"prosperous New Zealanders to pillage the wealth created by hard-working wage and salary earners." That the prosperous New Zealanders take rists to create and pay for.

"The sense of entitlement these bedbugs have is extraordinary and this is encouraged by the likes of Sheppard who apparently puts the right to unearned income ahead of basic human rights." Thought his blog was about government hand outs, not disparity in wealth.

"Sheppard would call the miserly $170 million paid to Tainui in compensation a handout. I'd call it a ripoff." I thought $170 millions was paid out of tax payers money; which could have been used to roading, health, education etc. Instead of giving it to Tainui, who as far as I know didn't specify exactly what the money would be used for...

john, if the 150 wealthiest people manage to grow their wealth then good for them, it takes a lot of learning and a lot more hard work to become part of this bracket, if it were easy,(like turning up to a low skilled paid position) then why aren't a lot more people achieving this bracket. Also, ask yourself this, why are there more employees than employers???? Because it takes a lot more hard work and knowledge of course. Until the lower paid can upskill themselves (and in the society we live in it's attainable for everyone) why should they get a handout (yet again) from other people working hard to make something for themselves. Pillaging wealth!, you are a fool, were it not for the people CREATING jobs for unskilled workers these people would be worse off than ever. You should emigrate to china or Uzbekistan .........or perhaps you could donate some of YOUR earnings to these people you're championing. As for your so called "rip off" to Tainui, it's a fact that ever since the world began, there have been wars between many different races of people, and it's never going to change, New Zealand stands out as an icon in the world for redressing these grievances, and as an aside, I don't recall seeing any modern day maori people living the way their ancestors did, maybe because the ancestors didn't have a social welfare system back then, who knows!

Your words are so true.

Read the stories of the early pioneers. The land was worth nothing when they bought it. They cut down most of the bush in the Waikato with axes. The drained the swamps with shovels. They built this country with their bare hands. Maori demands are robbing this country of the incentives needed for progress. I just dont see Maori investing in our future they way Pakeha have. Minto is just a left wing commie, always sticking up for some idealistic cause involving taking from those that worked hard and giving to the lazy and indolent..

One hundred per cent right in my opinion, John. To paraphrase Peter Garrett, it's time to pay the rent. It's not liberalism to recognise Maori who had prime agricultural land taken deserve recompense, but simple justice, the sort we'd expect if it happened to us. And for those who think it was simple conquest and all in the past, the invasion of the Waikato was actually a civil war. Maori, remember, were British subjects invaded and made landless by their own British army for not wanting to sell their valuable land for a pittance. The breathtaking arrogance of anyone who can dismiss this astounds me. Handouts? Absolutely not.

"...450,000 hard-working New Zealanders, who are disproportionately Maori and Pacific Islanders, struggle on wages of less than $15 an hour."

Oh I am sorry that you left school early and never actually applied yourself to anything worth your time. I am also sorry that you decided to have a big family even though you know you are on a low income and probably can't support a family on a low income.

No... wait. No I'm not sorry at all. Its your own fault. Want a better job? Want a pay rise? Lets see you get it the way everyone else does. Work harder, study (evening classes are an option), try getting an apprenticeship in a trade - try actually taking care of yourself for once and stop blaming the wealthier people (who had to work hard to get where they are) for your own failings at life.

This article defies belief. What don't you just come out and say it Minto. That NZ should be a communist country! If you were in charge of this country we would lose all educated people and the remaining kiwis would just coast along with absolutely no incentive to improve themselves in any way. Your stupid philosophies would make us a 3rd world country.