‘New under-class likely’

Press, 7 December 1987, Page 40

‘New under-class likely’

PA Wellington Privatising the health, education and social welfare system would destroy the freedom of access for the financially disadvantaged, says Victoria University’s sociology and social work department. The professor of Social Work Professor Leon Fulcher, in a submission to the Royal Commission on Social Welfare in Wellington, said all citizens benefited to a greater or lesser degree from the type of society set up in New Zealand, whether from welfare benefits, the taxation system, health or education services. "We think that there is clear historical evidence that ‘less government’ often leads to more social exploitation and para-

doxically, to less freedom,” he said. "The welfare state sought to provide minimum standards of living with respect to health, education food and housing. The provision of these through Increased personal and company taxation represented a political attempt to strike a balance towards an altruisitic society.

“It is hard to see how a 'user-pays’ philosophy can avoid dealing with the fact that we must all have the ability and means to pay.”

Professor Fulcher said people did not exist in a society only to use it but also to contribute to it. The Government must intervene to create a just and equitable society.

“We hope that the move towards State-Owned Enterprises will reflect in part the realisation that there is a social usefulness to these services that goes beyond the ability of the user to pay for them.

“There is a case to be made that the public has already paid for them out of general taxation, and that the equitable distribution of these services represents a commitment to equality of access to resources irrespective of your ability to pay for them.

"We think the State must play a role in the distribution of such 'social goods and services’ and not leave it to private enterprise.”

The consequences of

failing to do so would be to create a permanent under-class frozen into political and social disenfranchisement, Dr Fulcher said.

The Sociology and Social Work Department asked the Royal Commission to consider the provision of health, education and welfare services in differential ways that respected the specific culture of those seeking services.

It sought new social and economic contracts with the Maori people, who were disproportionately represented among the disadvantaged, that would offer all citizens equality of access to the nation’s resources.