‘Plug pulled on committee’

Press, 10 March 1987, Page 4

‘Plug pulled on committee’

By

PETER LUKE

in Wellington

The Government has pulled the financial plug on a committee it set up to help deal with the social impact of corporatisation.

The Wellington Regional Social Impact Committee was one of 15 committees set up last year to help reduce the community and individual impact of State sector reorganisation. Yesterday the Minister of State Services, Mr Rodger, said that the Wellington committee has had its funds withheld and its membership disbanded.

The axing of the committee came after a claim by a member, Mr Francis Wevers, that the State Services Commission had gagged the committee, by preventing details of a report being published. The report criticised the pace of change of

corporatisation, the failure of some corporations to tell workers about job prospects until the last minute, and the psychological problems arising from corporatisation. In turn, Mr Rodger accused the committee of failing to perform its set tasks and becoming “little more than a source of inflammatory statements.” Other regional committees were doing a tremendous job, by seeking solutions to the problems confronting people and helping with counselling, enterprise development and self-employ-ment opportunities. Mr Rodger defended the right of Mr Wevers and the Wellington committee to criticise corporatisation, but said the Government should not be expected to provide the funding and an environment for this criticism.

The national president of the Public Service

Association, Mr Colin Hicks, said last evening that Mr Rodger had made a “knee-jerk reaction,” which could only hurt the people the committee was supposed to help. “They are a social impact group and have seen some deficiencies in the process. I do not think that Mr Rodger or anyone else can defend the situation.”

The Wellington committee may not have chosen the most appropriate way to voice their concerns, but they clearly felt they had to speak out. Social impact committees should have been set up much earlier, and should not be “damagecontrol mechanisms after the event,” Mr Hicks said.

The committee had been trying to express the truth about corporatisation, and it was very hurtful for the Government to have the truth pointed out, he said.