Seems it is not so much high income earners that are unhappy with the Labour Party, but low and middle income earners whose living standards are declining. So let's list 5 ways Labour turned Robin Hood upside down and robbed low & middle earners to help the rich:
ONE: Tax bracket creep caused by high inflation has pushed low & middle earners into higher tax brackets, increasing the share of income they pay in taxes. For example, once you hit $48,000 your tax rate jumps from 10.5% to 17.5%. Once you hit $70,000 your tax rate shoots up from 17.5% to 33%. By contrast, for a person earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, their tax rate has remained roughly steady at 39%.
TWO: During the lockdowns, the government increased the market dominance of our two biggest supermarket chains, Countdown and New World, by making it illegal for anyone else to open. To this day, that action has entrenched their positions and led to high food prices.
THREE: The wage subsidy scheme transferred billions of dollars to the biggest companies in the country. Fletcher Construction is still sitting on $70 million that it got from taxpayers. Those gifts cemented uncompetitive practices by the dominant players in our construction industry, pushing up housing costs for all.
FOURTH: Low and middle earners have been particularly hit by the hikes in interest rates on their mortgages. The wealthy tend to be lenders, not borrowers, so many are benefiting from the higher rates on their term deposits.
FIVE: The Government & RBNZ (they're the same thing given how the RBNZ acts like a political party nowadays) handed the Big Banks a gift of $375 million per annum last week when the Official Cash Rate was raised by 75 basis points, being the additional annual return on their settlement account cash balances (which amount to $50 billion). Where did that $50 billion come from? The Reserve Bank's Quantitative Easing (Money Printing) Program.
I can't think of any government in past Kiwi history that has hit low and middle earners in so many ways, forcing up their grocery bills, building costs, mortgage payments and even their taxes - and defends itself by trying to argue they are making up for it with more benefits.