Former Court of Appeal judge Edmund Thomas will be giving this year's annual Bruce Jesson lecture at the end of the month. His topic is "Reducing Inequality - A Strategy for a Cause":
The speaker, a Distinguished Fellow at the Law School at the University of Auckland, argues that the gross inequality in income and wealth which besets New Zealand is the outcome of the neo-liberal economic measures of the mid-1980s and early 1990s and the culture of liberal individualism and unfettered free market ideology which it spawned. A breakdown in social cohesion and a sense of community is the result. Reforms to counter this inequality are widely mooted. But increasing focus and discussion on the topic is confronted by a plethora of mantras and myths purveyed by the rich and powerful. The stimulus for change is deadened. The speaker advances a strategy designed to provide a coherent impetus to reduce the rank inequality that now prevails.
When: 18:30, Wednesday 30 October 2013
Where: Maidment Theatre, Alfred Street, the University of Auckland
