This research aims to understand how New Zealanders think about fairness in order to help policy advisors provide more informed advice on the equity implications of policy choices. 

It also raises awareness in the general public of different perspectives on fairness and economic inequality, supporting more informed public discussion. 

This report provides the results of a survey that addresses questions on what fairness means and what economic conditions drive perceptions of fairness. It also considers to what extent New Zealander’s perceptions of fairness are grounded in reality and how perceptions of fairness vary across group markers including gender, age, race, education and geographic region.

Key findings

• Overall, New Zealanders tend to agree about what fairness means, and what is important for fairness, but disagree about whether life in New Zealand is fair.
• People tend to think life is less fair for others than for themselves.
• New Zealanders have a poor understanding of the level of economic inequality in New Zealand (as measured by the share of wealth going to the top 20%).
• Most New Zealanders feel that quality of life and access to opportunities and services are more important for fairness than income or wealth.
• When asked what the most important factor is for assessing the fairness of a change in economic inequality, the most common response was equal opportunities.
• People disagree about whether economic inequality is a consequence of people with equal opportunities making different choices or a sign that opportunities are unequal.
• People tended to change their views about economic fairness after being presented with statistics on income and wealth, concluding that life was less fair, although this varied greatly by gender with women much more likely to have their perception of fairness reduced.