Unemployed ‘scapegoats’

Press, 7 December 1978, Page 22

Unemployed ‘scapegoats’

A joint committee of the National Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church in Christchurch has criticised those in the Church and the Government who wish to blame the unemployed for being out of work.

In a statement after a meeting of the joint working committee, the cochairmen (the Rev. G. Munro and the Rev. K. O’Reilly) said that the present practice of “scapegoating” the unemployed shifted the burden of responsibility On to those people who were the victims of the social order.

“The Joint Working Committee of the N.C.C. and the Roman Catholic Church calls for a renewed commitment to full employment throughout the community and for a sharp rejection of planned unemployment, which is present in Government circles and in the documents of the New Zealand Planning Council,” they said.

Acceptance of unemployment as an "unpleasant side effect” of economic policy was socially destructive and ethically unacceptable. New Zealand could not afford to treat the unemployed in this way, they said.

"It is morally wrong, and in the long-term affects every family and business as social tension is heightened and the crime rate rises.” If, as some argued, unemployment was neces* sary under the present economic system, the answer was not to accept unemployment but to restructure the economy, they said. "Next year threatens to .bring with it even higher levels of unemployment, which will continue to be masked by our inadequate methods of collecting statistics and our refusal to face up to the seriousness and extent of the problem. This situation requires urgent attention.” Unemployment was an unacceptable part Of New Zealand’s social and economic life. It was felt most by the young, the unskilled, the Maori, and Pacific Islanders, they said. The Joint Working Committee acknowledged that there were costs in adopting policies aimed at producing full employment. It urged all New Zealanders, but especially churchgoers, planners, the .Government, and more affluent sections of society, to make new policies to fight unemployment in the interests ot the nation.