Abolition of family benefit?

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 6

Abolition of family benefit?

'PA Wellington ■ The abolition of the family benefit and a greatly , reduced national superannuation scheme feature among the recommendations in a draft EBusiness Roundtable submission to the Treasury, the “Dominion” reports. ; The draft also advocated turning the dole over to private sector insurance schemes, reducing Family Support and reviewing the domestic purposes benefit, the paper said. Roundtable is an influential group of New Zealand’s business elite.

In the health area, the

draft suggested Roundtable advise the abolition of adult subsidies for family doctors’ visits, along with the free school dental service. It suggested practice nurse subsidies would go, prescription charges would greatly increase, and local authority water and sewerage scheme subsidies would be removed. In education, the draft advocated a move to fund children, through parents, rather than schools. Schools would be left to compete for patronage. It recommended a minimum leaving age be dropped. In tertiary education

the draft urged the userpays principle be applied and education promoted as an export industry, taking overseas students who pay full costs. The draft suggested the Government should take a tougher line with the State unions, riding out strike action and driving down pay rates. It said the State sector annual general adjustment finally negotiated in the current round should be discounted by 3 per cent. Foreign Affairs’ “closed shop” should be abolished, with all overases service positions opened for competition.

New Zealand should get out of, or reduce its involvement in many United Nations agencies, and overseas aid should be reduced, it recommended. It also advocated the privatisation of justice and police services The Opposition spokesman on Social Welfare, Mr Venn Young, said many of the suggested changes deserved examination. But he said it was not accurate for the Roundtable discussion paper to describe proposals to increase the age of entitlement to national superannuation as insignificant reforms.