The National Government cut welfare benefits and removed the universal family benefit entirely with Ruth Richardson’s ‘mother of all budgets’.[i] Jenny Shipley criticised welfare system dependency and benefits as a poverty trap and pushed a modest ‘safety net’ welfare system which encouraged personal and family self-reliance and supported only those in need who could prove an ableness and willingness to be independent. Adult sickness benefits were lowered by 3–10%, widow’s and domestic purposes benefits by 8–16% depending on whether the women had children, and adult unemployment benefits by 7–10%.[ii] Core benefit rates were cut by up to 25% and tighter welfare eligibility rules removed $1.275 billion from the social welfare budget in a full fiscal year.[iii]
Social, health and education services were to be delivered in a business-like fashion through contracts between the state and individual providers.[iv]
A small drop in the funding for Plunket in 1991 opened doors to competitors in the infant welfare field. Health Minister Simon Upton explained the government was funding a new child welfare service in Rotorua, the Tipu Ora project, a Māori initiative.[v]
National abolished the 1990 Iwi Runanga Act in 1991 (passed in the last few days of the previous Labour administration) which had offered Māori enhanced status in law and to provide for the establishment of iwi authorities that might represent iwi in legal matters, in accordance with special charters, to receive public funds.[vi]
The Social Welfare Commission, established in 1987 as part of the implementation of Puao-te-Ata-Tu, was restructured.[vii]
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content McClure, Margaret, ‘A Badge of Poverty or a Symbol of Citizenship? Needs, Rights, and Social Security, 1935-2000’, in Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennant, eds., Past Judgement, Dunedin, 2004, p. 153.; Margaret McClure, A Civilised Community: A History of Social Security in New Zealand 1898–1998, Auckland, 1998, p. 235.; Jonathan Boston, 1993. "Reshaping social policy in New Zealand," Fiscal Studies, 14, 3, pp. 64-85, p. 70.
- [ii] go to main content McClure, 1998, p. 237.
- [iii] go to main content Paul Dalziel, ‘National’s Macroeconomic Policy’, in Jonathan Boston and Paul Dalziel, eds., The Decent Society, Oxford, 1992, pp. 19-38, p. 19.
- [iv] go to main content Margaret Tennant, Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History, co-edited with Bronwyn Dalley, 2004, p. 20.; Michael Belgrave, ‘Needs and the State: Evolving Social Policy in New Zealand History’, in Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennant, eds., Past Judgement, Dunedin, 2004, p. 37.
- [v] go to main content Bryder, Linda, ‘Plunket’s Secret Army: The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society and the State’, in Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennants, eds., Past Judgement, Dunedin, 2004, p. 123.
- [vi] go to main content Danny Keenan, ‘The Treaty is Always Speaking?’, in Margaret Tennant and Bronwyn Dalley, eds., Past Judgement, Social Policy in New Zealand History, Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2004 p. 217.; Margaret Tennant, The Fabric of Welfare: Voluntary Organisations, Government, and Welfare in New Zealand, 1840–2005, 2007, p. 196.; Wai 414, p. 211.
- [vii] go to main content Alex McKenzie, Social Assistance Chronology 1844–2022: A historical summary of social security benefits, war pensions, retirement pensions, taxation measures, family assistance, housing assistance, student support and labour market programmes (as at April 2022), Ministry of Social Development, p. 193.
Social Assistance Chronology – a chronology of social assistance policy and programmes in New Zealand – 1844 to 2023 - Ministry of Social Development (msd.govt.nz)