Fiscal Policy Challenge — L-R in CGHS uniform: Akeira Worthington, Beth Wray, Lily Trotter by Alastair Blyth

Fiscal Policy Challenge

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The Fiscal Policy Challenge tasks senior Economics students to make recommendations to the Tax Working Group on the New Zealand tax system.

Three senior economists, Lily Trotter, Akeira Worthington and Beth Wray together won awards for the Best Team Essay and were declared the Overall Winners of the Treasury Schools Challenge for 2018. Their recommended tax policies were an inheritance tax to reduce wealth disparity, a tax exemption on the production of cultural artworks and a tax on virgin raw materials.

 For their efforts the girls earned a trip to Wellington to receive their prize of a $2000 Victoria University Scholarship and $500 Harvey Norman Voucher from the New Zealand Treasury. It was an eye-opening experience for the girls to converse with members of the Treasury including Gabriel Makhlouf, the chief executive at the Treasury, with whom they discussed their winning tax policies. A walk down the waterfront and a shopping trip around Wellington were also enjoyable parts of the trip for the girls.