Work schemes may return

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 1

Work schemes may return

A return to work- schemes is being' . considered,-'bUt onlyjbr limited:’ the. fringes of society, said the: Minister* of Employment, Mr Goff; yesterday. Earlier, the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, Created confusion when he said in a radio interview that work schemes might have to be reconsidered for some groups.

Mr Goff has consistently said that there would be no return to what he termed “make-work schemes,” such as the P.E.P. scheme.

He maintained yesterday there was no difference between himself and Mr Lange, although a scheme was being investigated. “The possible scheme the Government is looking at is not a return to contract work schemes,” he said. But a scheme for at-risk groups, such as glue-sniffers, was under consideration by the Labour Department. It had been consulting such authorities as the police, Maori elders and the Social Welfare Department. One aim of the scheme was to

prevent socially alienated people creating problems for the community. “Something is needed for atrisk people who are a threat to themselves and the wider community.” The recent report of the Roper committee on violent offending had said that the ’ community would be better protected by such a scheme, said Mr Goff. He said a scheme was required which met the objectives of the contract work scheme, abolished last year, but with improved accountability. Such schemes’' would be on a small scale. The Opposition’s spokesman on employment, Mr Winston Peters, said it was sick logic to talk of providing work scheme only for anti-social misfits. All jobless people were in need of urgent assistance, said Mr Peters. “What sort of mentality seeks to reward people for criminality and totally ignores jobless school-leavers, redundant and displaced workers and family breadwinners?” he said.