Support of Mr Jones ‘not sinister’ to Labour

Press, 6 March 1985, Page 9

Support of Mr Jones ‘not sinister’ to Labour

Members of the Labour Government see nothing sinister in having the support of the New Zealand Party leader, Mr Bob Jones, for some of its economic moves, according to the Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs Ann Hercus. Mrs Hercus, who was speaking at the University of Canterbury yesterday, had been asked if the Government became at all nervous when it was congratulated by Mr Jones for its economic policies. Mrs Hercus said that Mr Jones had a good sense of humour and would find it “quite charming to congratulate the Labour Party and to make us feel nervous.”

It was not surprising that Mr Jones supported some Government moves, as the New Zealand Party and the Labour Party had similar policies on some issues, such as a nuclear-free New Zealand. “He also believed that the controls that the Muldoon Administration put on were restrictive. The rent freeze is an example. He opposed it from a capitalist viewpoint and I see it from a human viewpoint. We used different thought processes hut came to the same con-

elusion,” she said. Mrs Hercus was at the university to give the first lecture for students and social workers in its department of social work. The Labour Government had made some bold economic moves in the seven months since it took office, she said. They were designed to restore economic health and prosperity, and a major part of the new direction was a commitment to social equity.

The Government believed that economic and social policies should be integrated and it had taken unique steps to make sure that that happened.

One of these was the Budget ’B5 task force, consisting of officials from the Social Welfare Department, the Treasury, and the Inland Revenue Department. Its job was to examine options for reform to the social security benefit and income tax systems, in particular measures that could be implemented in this year’s Budget, which was due in September. The task force had 19 consultants, including representatives of unemployed workers’ groups, organisations for the disabled, social service organisations, and members who were them-

selves unemployed, single parents, or national superannuitants. The task force would also consult with the wider public, by holding meetings throughout New Zealand to receive submissions. A public discussion paper designed to stimulate debate would be put out in the middle of this month. Mrs Hercus said she realised that a lack of resources was one of the biggest impediments groups faced in putting their views forward. Funding had been made available for that, and the details of the funding allocations would be released in a few days, along with the dates and places of the public meetings. In the past, the social security and personal income tax systems had been run and reviewed independently of each other. Little attention had been paid to their combined impact on the distribution of income and on people’s social and economic choices. The result was a poorly integrated system, fraught with anomalies and inconsistencies.

Mrs Hercus said she hoped people would take part in the Budget ’B5 task force because the experiment, which was an oppor-

tunity to improve policy development, would not be repeated if it were not successful.

There would be many important issues which could not be dealt with before the 1985 Budget, and so it would be followed by a Royala Commission on Social Security, the first for a decade and a half. The Government had already directed help to lowincome and moderate-in-come families through Family Care. A problem area that remained for many families was housing, because of the rent freeze and the National Government’s cut in Housing Corporation units.

The Government hoped to cushion the effects of rent increases on low-income families/by making accommodation benefits available to low-wage earners as well as beneficiaries. Details of those moves would be announced later this week. Mrs Hercus said she was also looking at the ways social policy was developed and implemented and had set up a committee to review the Social Work Training Council. Its report would be finished by June. She wanted to make sure that training kept pace with social changes.