This is the second in the series that looks at one policy topic at a time instead of putting two parties side by side. Tax and wealth is worth its own piece because it is where the survey’s left-right axis does most of its work: of the 60 statements the compass is built from, “the wealth and assets of the rich should be heavily taxed to reduce inequality” carries the second-strongest left-right loading of the lot. The topic holds four statements: whether a capital gains tax is an envy tax, whether the very rich are selfish hoarders, whether the rich should be heavily taxed, and whether New Zealand should bring in a land value tax.

The numbers below come from 698 responses split across six parties’ voters: 234 Greens, 196 OPP, 155 Labour, 43 ACT, 43 NZ First and 27 National. The land value tax statement was added to the survey more recently than the other three, so it has roughly a third of the answers they do. ACT’s and National’s samples on it fall below the size needed to plot them at all, so they are left off that statement throughout. NZ First clears that bar, but only just, so treat its land value tax number as a direction rather than a position.

One caveat matters more than the rest here, because this topic is the one the sample skew bears on most directly. The sample leans left out of all proportion: among respondents who named a party they voted for in 2023, Labour, the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and OPP together make up 81% of the answers, against 44% of the actual party vote that year, and National-leaning respondents are close to absent. So read the right-hand side of every chart below as the answers of a few dozen people rather than as a settled picture of what ACT, National or NZ First voters think about tax. The sample composition page charts the skew against the Electoral Commission’s result and updates as responses arrive.

Three statements sort the parties into two blocs. Naming an actual tax does not.

Greens OPP Labour ACT NZ First National New Zealand should implement a Land Value Tax (LVT), an annual tax on the value of land, regardless of income or what's built on it. Land value tax Greens: +0.14 (n=65) OPP: +0.52 (n=68) Labour: +0.05 (n=31) NZ First: -0.78 (n=15) A capital gains tax is an envy tax on those of us who are successful. Capital gains tax is an envy tax Greens: -0.79 (n=234) OPP: -0.67 (n=196) Labour: -0.64 (n=155) ACT: +0.52 (n=43) NZ First: +0.10 (n=43) National: +0.25 (n=27) Multi-millionaires and billionaires are selfish hoarders of excess wealth. Billionaires are selfish hoarders Greens: +0.76 (n=234) OPP: +0.30 (n=196) Labour: +0.45 (n=155) ACT: -0.62 (n=43) NZ First: -0.36 (n=43) National: -0.44 (n=27) The wealth and assets of the rich should be heavily taxed to reduce inequality. Heavily tax the rich Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens: +0.78 (n=234) OPP: +0.39 (n=196) Labour: +0.47 (n=155) ACT: -0.77 (n=43) NZ First: -0.34 (n=43) National: -0.45 (n=27)
Each dot is a party's mean answer on the nine-point agreement scale. Rows run from the narrowest party spread to the widest. n = 234 Greens, 196 OPP, 155 Labour, 43 ACT, 43 NZ First, 27 National. A party is left off a statement's row when too few of its voters answered it: 'Land value tax' (ACT, National).

As with every piece in this series, this is a self-selected sample that skews younger and more online than the country as a whole, so treat it as directional, not a poll. ACT and National are the smallest groups here, and on the land value tax statement they do not have enough responses to be plotted at all. You can see exactly who has answered so far.

Section 1 of 6

The principle splits them almost perfectly

Three of the four statements ask about taxing wealth in the abstract, and all three produce the same shape: Greens, OPP and Labour voters on one side of the centre, ACT, National and NZ First voters on the other, with nobody straddling the line. That is rarer than it sounds. Group the survey’s statements into a dozen policy topics and only two of them, tax and wealth being one and welfare and work the other, split the parties into those same two blocs on every single statement they contain. On most topics at least one party crosses over somewhere.

Should the rich be heavily taxed?

This is the widest party gap in the topic, 1.55 points from ACT to the Greens, and it is close to unanimous within each bloc. 96% of Greens voters agree, 82% of Labour voters and 76% of OPP voters. On the other side 95% of ACT voters disagree, as do 74% of National voters and 67% of NZ First voters. Greens average +0.78 and ACT -0.77, which are almost mirror images of each other. The two smaller right-leaning groups are less emphatic: National average -0.45 and NZ First -0.34, and NZ First’s middle half reaches past neutral into agreement, so some of its voters are with the left bloc here.

The wealth and assets of the rich should be heavily taxed to reduce inequality.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 234 Greens: +0.78 average, middle half +0.55 to +0.92 (n = 234) OPP n = 196 OPP: +0.39 average, middle half +0.14 to +0.74 (n = 196) Labour n = 155 Labour: +0.47 average, middle half +0.29 to +0.82 (n = 155) ACT n = 43 ACT: -0.77 average, middle half -0.92 to -0.55 (n = 43) NZ First n = 43 NZ First: -0.34 average, middle half -0.74 to +0.06 (n = 43) National n = 27 National: -0.45 average, middle half -0.85 to -0.10 (n = 27)
The dot is the party's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the party's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 698 respondents across 6 parties.

Are the very rich selfish hoarders?

The same statement put as a judgement about people rather than about policy, and the blocs hold, but the left bloc loses some of its conviction. Greens voters are as emphatic as before, 93% agreeing and a mean of +0.76. Labour voters sit at +0.45. OPP voters drop to +0.30, with 22% of them disagreeing outright and their middle half crossing the centre line, which is the first sign in this topic that OPP voters are more interested in tax as a mechanism than in the moral framing around it. The right bloc disagrees firmly: ACT -0.62, National -0.44, NZ First -0.36.

Multi-millionaires and billionaires are selfish hoarders of excess wealth.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 234 Greens: +0.76 average, middle half +0.55 to +0.92 (n = 234) OPP n = 196 OPP: +0.30 average, middle half -0.11 to +0.76 (n = 196) Labour n = 155 Labour: +0.45 average, middle half +0.08 to +0.86 (n = 155) ACT n = 43 ACT: -0.62 average, middle half -0.90 to -0.43 (n = 43) NZ First n = 43 NZ First: -0.36 average, middle half -0.71 to -0.07 (n = 43) National n = 27 National: -0.44 average, middle half -0.74 to -0.22 (n = 27)
The dot is the party's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the party's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 698 respondents across 6 parties.

Is a capital gains tax an envy tax?

Read this one backwards: agreeing means rejecting a capital gains tax. It draws the strongest disagreement of any statement in the topic overall, with 78% of everyone who answered disagreeing and only 17% agreeing. The left bloc is almost solid, 91% of Greens voters disagreeing, 90% of OPP voters and 88% of Labour voters. ACT is the outlier in the other direction, 81% agreeing for a mean of +0.52. National agree more mildly at +0.25, and NZ First voters are genuinely split: 51% agree, 40% disagree, and their mean of +0.10 sits close to the centre with a middle half that spans most of the scale.

A capital gains tax is an envy tax on those of us who are successful.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Greens n = 234 Greens: -0.79 average, middle half -0.93 to -0.62 (n = 234) OPP n = 196 OPP: -0.67 average, middle half -0.90 to -0.46 (n = 196) Labour n = 155 Labour: -0.64 average, middle half -0.90 to -0.44 (n = 155) ACT n = 43 ACT: +0.52 average, middle half +0.32 to +0.85 (n = 43) NZ First n = 43 NZ First: +0.10 average, middle half -0.46 to +0.61 (n = 43) National n = 27 National: +0.25 average, middle half -0.33 to +0.78 (n = 27)
The dot is the party's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the party's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 698 respondents across 6 parties.
Section 2 of 6

Then you name a tax

A land value tax is an annual tax on the value of land regardless of income or what is built on it, which makes it the one statement in this topic that names a specific policy rather than a principle. The neat two-bloc picture does not survive it.

OPP voters are the most in favour by a wide margin, averaging +0.52 with 81% agreeing, and a land value tax has been OPP policy for years, so that is roughly what you would expect. What is less expected is how lukewarm the rest of the left bloc is. Greens voters average +0.14 and Labour voters +0.05, both barely off the centre line, and more than a fifth of each group picks a neutral answer: 28% of Greens voters and 23% of Labour voters, against 7% of OPP voters. Greens voters went from 96% agreeing that the rich should be heavily taxed to 49% agreeing to this. OPP is the only party here whose voters back the named tax more strongly than the principle behind it.

NZ First voters are the clearest opponents, and it is the one statement in the topic where NZ First separates itself from the rest of the right bloc rather than sitting between them and the centre. Only a few dozen NZ First voters answered it, so read that as a direction. ACT and National are left off entirely for the same reason.

New Zealand should implement a Land Value Tax (LVT), an annual tax on the value of land, regardless of income or what's built on it.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree OPP n = 68 OPP: +0.52 average, middle half +0.23 to +0.88 (n = 68) Greens n = 65 Greens: +0.14 average, middle half -0.17 to +0.48 (n = 65) Labour n = 31 Labour: +0.05 average, middle half -0.34 to +0.44 (n = 31) NZ First n = 15 NZ First: -0.78 average, middle half -0.93 to -0.62 (n = 15)
The dot is the party's mean answer; the line spans the middle half of the party's answers, lightly smoothed. n = 179 respondents across 4 parties. ACT and National are left off: too few of their voters answered this statement.
Section 3 of 6

Principle against policy

Putting the two statements on one plot shows what the two sections above describe separately. Along the bottom is whether the rich should be heavily taxed, which sorts the parties left to right in the order you would guess. Up the side is the land value tax, which does not: OPP sits well above the Greens and Labour despite all three being in much the same place on the horizontal.

The clearest way to see how loosely the two travel together is within a single party. Among OPP voters the correlation between the two statements is +0.02, which is to say none at all: knowing an OPP voter wants the rich taxed more tells you nothing about whether they want a land value tax. Among Greens voters it is +0.34, a real but modest link. Across everyone the two correlate at +0.44, and most of that comes from the gap between the blocs rather than from anything happening inside them.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Heavily tax the rich: The wealth and assets of the rich should be heavily taxed to reduce inequality. Heavily tax the rich (across) Land value tax: New Zealand should implement a Land Value Tax (LVT), an annual tax on the value of land, regardless of income or what's built on it. Land value tax (up) Greens OPP Labour ACT NZ First National Greens: Heavily tax the rich +0.78 (middle half +0.6 to +0.9), Land value tax +0.14 (middle half -0.2 to +0.5), n = 65 OPP: Heavily tax the rich +0.40 (middle half +0.2 to +0.7), Land value tax +0.52 (middle half +0.2 to +0.9), n = 68 Labour: Heavily tax the rich +0.58 (middle half +0.3 to +0.9), Land value tax +0.05 (middle half -0.3 to +0.4), n = 31 NZ First: Heavily tax the rich -0.47 (middle half -0.9 to -0.1), Land value tax -0.78 (middle half -0.9 to -0.6), n = 15 Greens OPP Labour NZ First
Dots are party means; the ellipse spans the middle half of each party's answers on both statements, lightly smoothed. This pair sets the topic's broad principle against its one concrete policy, and it separates the parties further than either statement does on its own. Across everyone plotted the two correlate at r = +0.41. ACT and National fall below the plotting minimum for this pair and are not drawn; treat NZ First's dot as direction only.
Section 4 of 6

Which statements move together

Across everyone who answered, the two abstract wealth statements are nearly the same question: “the rich should be heavily taxed” and “the very rich are selfish hoarders” correlate at +0.77, the strongest pair in the topic. The capital gains statement runs the other way, as it should given how it is worded, at -0.66 against heavily taxing the rich. The land value tax is the loose end: its strongest link to anything else in the topic is +0.44.

Those numbers flatter the topic’s coherence, though, because a correlation across the whole sample partly measures the gap between parties rather than anything inside them. Within Greens voters alone, the strongest pair falls from +0.77 to +0.53, and across all six pairs the within-Greens correlation is on average 0.31 lower than the all-respondent one. Tax statements look like one dimension mostly because the parties are so far apart on them.

Correlation between every pair of statements in this topic Blue-indigo is negative, orange is positive, grey is near zero; neither hue is a party colour Capital gains tax is an envy tax Capital gains tax is an envy tax and Billionaires are selfish hoarders: r = -0.54 -0.54 Capital gains tax is an envy tax and Heavily tax the rich: r = -0.66 -0.66 Capital gains tax is an envy tax and Land value tax: r = -0.46 -0.46 Capital gains tax is an envy tax Billionaires are selfish hoarders and Capital gains tax is an envy tax: r = -0.54 -0.54 Billionaires are selfish hoarders Billionaires are selfish hoarders and Heavily tax the rich: r = 0.77 0.77 Billionaires are selfish hoarders and Land value tax: r = 0.37 0.37 Billionaires are selfish hoarders Heavily tax the rich and Capital gains tax is an envy tax: r = -0.66 -0.66 Heavily tax the rich and Billionaires are selfish hoarders: r = 0.77 0.77 Heavily tax the rich Heavily tax the rich and Land value tax: r = 0.44 0.44 Heavily tax the rich Land value tax and Capital gains tax is an envy tax: r = -0.46 -0.46 Land value tax and Billionaires are selfish hoarders: r = 0.37 0.37 Land value tax and Heavily tax the rich: r = 0.44 0.44 Land value tax Land value tax Capital gains tax is an envy tax Billionaires are selfish hoarders Heavily tax the rich Land value tax
Each cell is the correlation between two statements over respondents who answered both. Diagonal cells are each statement against itself and carry no number.
Section 5 of 6

Where tax and wealth sits on the compass

The compass is built from 60 statements at once, and each one pulls in its own direction. Three of these four pull almost straight along the left-right axis with barely any vertical component, which is why tax sorts the parties so cleanly: heavily taxing the rich has the second-largest left-right loading in the whole survey, behind only lowering the voting age to 16.

The land value tax is the exception again. It is the only one of the four with a substantial pull toward the libertarian, bottom end of the compass as well as toward the left, which fits where OPP’s dot sits: left of the crosshair and below it. The other three have only a small vertical component, and it points the other way, toward the top. So a land value tax is not simply a stronger version of taxing the rich as far as this model is concerned. It points somewhere else.

Tax and wealth on the compass LEFT RIGHT AUTHORITARIAN LIBERTARIAN Tax and wealth Other statements Capital gains tax is an envy tax: A capital gains tax is an envy tax on those of us who are successful. (pc1=-0.17, pc2=-0.04) Billionaires are selfish hoarders: Multi-millionaires and billionaires are selfish hoarders of excess wealth. (pc1=+0.18, pc2=-0.10) Heavily tax the rich: The wealth and assets of the rich should be heavily taxed to reduce inequality. (pc1=+0.20, pc2=-0.06) Land value tax: New Zealand should implement a Land Value Tax (LVT), an annual tax on the value of land, regardless of income or what's built on it. (pc1=+0.15, pc2=+0.12) Billionaires are selfish hoarders Heavily tax the rich Land value tax Capital gains tax is an envy tax
Each highlighted line is one statement's loading, direction and length; the faint lines are every other statement in the survey for context. The crosshair at the centre is the political centre; positive loadings on the second axis point toward the libertarian, bottom end of the live compass.
Section 6 of 6

How sure are we

Three of these six groups are large enough that their averages on the first three statements are fairly settled: Greens (234), OPP (196) and Labour (155). ACT (43), NZ First (43) and National (27) are much smaller, so read those three as direction rather than exact distance throughout. On the land value tax statement the samples shrink again, because it is newer: ACT and National do not clear the minimum needed to plot a group at all and are left off, and NZ First clears it by the narrowest possible margin.

One thing the lead chart cannot show: because ACT and National are missing from the land value tax row, the spread on that row is measured across four parties and the other three rows across six, so the rows are not quite like for like. The land value tax row would very likely be wider, not narrower, if the two missing parties were on it.

As with every piece in this series, this is a self-selected sample that skews younger and more online than the country as a whole, and it leans much further left than the country does. You can see exactly who has answered so far.

For how the compass and this kind of breakdown are built, see the methodology page.

Want to see where your own answers land? Take the survey at kiwivalues.nz.