To explore what students think about tax have them fill out our online survey.
Or you can print out and complete the survey here:
Learning experience 3 – What do people think about how tax is spent?
Key conceptual understanding
That people think differently about the impact of tax spending on New Zealand’s communities and how decisions about tax spending should be made.
Exploring values and perspectives:
What are the different points of view in our community about what tax should be spent on? Why do they believe this?
Vox pops
After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, some people suggested that the government use a special tax to fund the earthquake recovery. Ask the students whether or not they think this would be a good idea.
Provide each student with a number of vox pops. Have the students interview at least four adults about whether they would agree to an increase in their taxes if it was used specifically to rebuild Christchurch following the earthquakes. Get them to record why they would or wouldn't support a tax like this?
Have the students sort and group the responses. What similarities and differences between values can they see? Having looked at these responses, ask the students whether or not their opinion changed? Why/why not?
Role play
Ask the students to form groups of four to role play the following:
Scenario: The aftermath of the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes will require considerable financial support to assist recovery. Imagine that you are members of Cabinet (Members of Parliament who have key responsibilities within the governing party). You are meeting to discuss this year’s budget and how much money will be allocated to the Christchurch recovery. Out of every million dollars, you will need to decide what proportion/percentage should be allocated to various services and sectors.
- Minister of Education – responsible for schools, colleges, universities, and their staff, as well as ensuring that students attend school and have quality learning opportunities.
- Minister of Health – responsible for some doctors, hospitals, laboratories, and some of their staff, as well as ensuring general public health, i.e. standards of food outlets.
- Minister of Transport – responsible for providing and maintaining roading and transport infrastructure.
- Minister of Social Development – responsible for the provision of student loans, working for families, unemployment benefits.
- Minister of Culture and Heritage – responsible for the funding of art galleries, theatres.
- Minister of Tourism – responsible for bringing tourism to New Zealand, hospitality and promotion of local resources.
- Minister of Police – responsible for maintaining law and order.
Finding out information
Find out what the government allocated to the Christchurch earthquake recovery. How and where was this money spent? What other sources of funding supported the earthquake recovery? Useful links can be found below:
Rebuild paying own way - leaders
$400m assets sale needed to save Christchurch
If you ever wondered how your own tax dollars are spent, there's a simple calculator that shows you just where your tax dollars go. Enter your income and the site instantly calculates what your tax dollars are spent on.
What is tax for in our community: Next learning steps
Use a KWL chart on the whiteboard (as in Learning experience 1) and the questions in the ‘Reflecting and evaluating’, ‘So what?’, and ‘Now what?’ sections of the Social Inquiry Overview to establish the next learning steps with your students. There may be particular local and current issues that students are interested in exploring further and areas of knowledge that they need to develop in more depth.
Go to Level 4 unit – Home