David Farrar: Wanting to ban billionaires from NZ

Radio NZ reports:

The second poll commissioned in February 2026 revealed that 66 percent agreed that New Zealand’s economic system was not set up to effectively to address issues like housing, healthcare and climate change.

Half of New Zealanders also agreed that billionaires shouldn’t exist while people still struggled with basic necessities like food.

Sixty-eight percent supported billionaires being taxed more to fund public goods like healthcare, housing and climate action.

And another 37 percent were in favour of introducing a billion-dollar wealth cap to minimise the amount of wealth any person could legally hold.

So do people think we should shoot billionaires, ban them or just confiscate their wealth?

Here’s what would happen if this left pipe dream became reality with a left wing Government.

The following people would leave New Zealand:

• Peter Jackson
• Rod Drury
• Mat & Nick Mowbray
• The Todd family
• The Talley family
• Sir Michael Friedlander
• Bruce Plested
• Mark Stewart

This would immediately see the NZ tax take drop by many hundreds of millions of dollars, and also probably see tens of thousands of jobs follow. Wellywood would be no more.

No one who is not a moron would stay in a country that confiscates every single asset they have over a certain level.

What this reflects is the politics of envy. They think that if Rod Drury did not invent Xero, then somehow a poor family in South Auckland would have a higher benefit from taxpayers. They think wealth is a finite sum, and every dollar someone has, has been taken off someone else.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders