New Zealanders have a strong fairness gene. We care about it as much the Americans care about freedom. It is one of the many things that makes this country so pleasant to live in.

And Kiwis have an acute sense of what is fair or not. No one minds someone getting rich, but we mind mightily if the wealth was attained unfairly.

So any excessive chief executive pay runs squarely into public criticism about its fairness, including the 5.84 million rights granted to the six top executives at Air New Zealand recently.

The unions called it a tone-deaf action. As a shareholder of Air New Zealand, Simplicity joined the chorus of criticism.

Read the full article by Sam Stubbs on Stuff.