Increasingly the New Zealand Parliament is becoming a place for the affluent. New research out today on the socioeconomic and occupational backgrounds of those in the current Parliament shows that MPs are becoming more and more homogenous. Despite diversifying demographics in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and so forth, our central democratic institution is narrowing in terms of social class – becoming a Parliament of the Rich.
Does anyone have links to prior versions of this? (Aka back history of these reports)
It would be interesting to see the trends on this… this para suggests / frames a long sequence of reporting on this - so I’d love to see those reports and/or data…
“This morning the MP Career Report of New Zealand’s 54th Parliament has been released, put together by researchers at the Blackland PR firm. It’s a triennial study in which the researchers look at the backgrounds, and particularly the occupations, of each Parliament.”
As always an interesting read. What I suspected and now know. It's also interesting that those few who have come from poorer backgrounds like to make an issue of it.
Does anyone have links to prior versions of this? (Aka back history of these reports)
It would be interesting to see the trends on this… this para suggests / frames a long sequence of reporting on this - so I’d love to see those reports and/or data…
“This morning the MP Career Report of New Zealand’s 54th Parliament has been released, put together by researchers at the Blackland PR firm. It’s a triennial study in which the researchers look at the backgrounds, and particularly the occupations, of each Parliament.”
TIA
Hi Geoff - the researchers have put some of the last few reports online here: https://www.blacklandpr.com/s-projects-side-by-side
Fascinating
As always an interesting read. What I suspected and now know. It's also interesting that those few who have come from poorer backgrounds like to make an issue of it.