About The Progressive Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

The decision to form a political party in New Zealand was inspired in part by the successful emergence of other Progressive Utilization Theory based political parties around the world. “Amra Bangali” (India) is one of many such parties and has been active for decades. Two other Indian Prout-based political parties are Proutist Sarva Samaj and Proutist Bloc, India (PBI) “Humane World” (Germany) is another. It has been contesting the German elections for 10 years.

Founders of The Progressive Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have been studying P. R. Sarkar’s Progressive Utilisation Theory model over many years and believe now is the opportune time to promote its model for real change.

Why is change necessary in New Zealand?

The existing capitalist model is dedicated to ensuring that businesses maximize profits.
Regretfully this is being accompanied by social and environmental degradation.

On its watch, the current model has seen:

Approximately 328,000 NZ children live in poverty (this is 28.5% of all NZ
children)*
New Zealand’s imprisonment rate at 170 per 100,000 population significantly higher
than the OECD average of 147 per 100,000.
Maori men comprise 53% of the NZ’s male prison population and Maori women
67% of women in prison. Maori comprising only 15% of NZ population.
NZ having one of the highest youth suicide rates among OECD countries.
300,000 NZ families living in unacceptable housing conditions according to Habitat
NZ
More than 7500 native New Zealand plants and animals considered nationally
endangered.

* Sourced from Stats NZ – with poverty defined as households with less than 60% median
equivalized disposable household income after housing costs.

Clearly the model is not meeting all of society’s needs

We invite you to co-create a world in which

All people can fulfil their basic needs for food, clothing, housing, medical care and education,
All human beings can freely develop their physical, mental and spiritual potentials,
All human beings experience human rights such as physical integrity, equality and freedom,
Animals and plants can live naturally and we treat our earth with respect and keep it pure,
Moving together and for each other we can develop our individual and collective potential.

How can we do that?

In order to shape such a society, it is necessary for us and especially the leaders, to think and act for the well-being of all. Such a society can come about when principles of morality and neohumanism, are infused into all social institutions, especially education and government institutions.

Neohumanism recognises that in addition to human beings, we need to take responsibility for the welfare of all living beings including animals and plants. It is not just an idea but also a practice – to train the mind to see oneness in all. Training the mind in this way is facilitated by practices such as introspection, meditation and mindfulness. In this regard we recommend checking out a TED talk on The Consciousness Frontier by NZ yogi, Dada Gunamuktananda (18 minutes)

The Progressive Party is guided by the view that humanity is one family. In a healthy family everybody cares for and looks after everyone else. The Progressive Party Aotearoa New Zealand aligns with these key values. A Progressive government would commit to the goal of guaranteeing that everyone’s basic needs in respect of food, clothing, housing, medical care and education are met.

To make this possible the Progressive Party is committed to ensuring that a just minimum wage provides everyone with the purchasing power to meet their housing and other basic needs. The just minimum wage would increase over time to ensure a progressively higher standard of living – for example to enable access to new technologies. The just minimum wage would be set by a Wages and Salaries Commission. In a related first move, as required in the USA, each year companies would be required to identify and disclose the compensation of the median-paid employee at the firm and compare that to the CEO as a ratio. This would eventually lead to a cap on salaries linked to the just minimum wage.