Social services reform confirmed by P.M.

Press, 20 April 1988, Page 4

Social services reform confirmed by P.M.

By

OLIVER RIDDELL,

in Wellington

Reform of social services but not along more-market or user-pays lines was promised yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange.

In a special press conference in his Beehive office he outlined the social service reports yet to come and their probable time of release.

They all had features in common, he said, and included commitments to consultation, reform and consolidation.

Mr Lance’s analysis of the social! policy changes confirmed his announcement in his Massey University address a month ago that Reform would be and step-by-step ratheir than sweeping and speedy. "One of the problems with reform in New Zealand is I that everyone wants improvements but there is no great demand for change,” he said. “There, 1 was also the problem ! that people thought reform of social policy could occur in the same way as reform of the economy. “But the Government has complete responsibility for social services and

cannot rely on market forces to be a corrective as with the economy, even while'demanding the best return from both,” Mr Lange said..

There were a number of reports still to come: 0 A blueprint for Maoridom would be announced by the Minister of Maori ! Affairs, Mr Wetere, tomorrow to provide a discussion paper on how Maoris and the Government could best work together. • The remainder of the report of the Royal Commission on! Social Policy would be released on May 6. . |' I • The report of the Picot Education Committee i was to hand and would be (considered by the Cabinet Ministers concerned before being publishing in mid-May. • The report of the Law Commission on the funding of accident compensation was awaited. • (Mr Lange also listed the (report of the Gibbs

hospital task force and interim reports on income maintenance and taxation by the Royal Commission as being other reports the Government was working through. It had also commissioned reports ion the management of! various Government agencies involved in social service delivery. The report on the Department of Social Welfare had been published.

The whole exercise was part of fighting for the future.

The social welfare system had to be-broadened from just handling unlimited and increasing amounts of money to being flexible and innovative, leaving the Government centrally involved. The right answers for the 1930 s could not be the right answers j for the 19905, Mr Lange said. People were entitled to the certainty that the social services they got

were the best they could get.

Good social services were not a luxury; a high standard of education and of health were as much an investment in the future as good economic policy.

It was the Government’s responsibility to be cautious in making changes in social policy, said Mr Lange. Social services were not in the market place; the service had to go where the need was greatest and not where the purse was deepest. A bipartisan approach on superannuation has been sought by the Government but so far has not been agreed to by the Opposition. Mr Lange said he: had written to the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, offering a bipartisan approach. A joint working party had been suggested and the Government had agreed to be bound by its

decisions, he said, but the only response he had had from; Mr ’Bolger so far had been conditional. “I i wrote back and asked for an answer without all the rhetoric,” Mr Lange said. Mr Bolger had set a number of pre-conditions before agreeing to a bipartisan approach. The two most important were that the Government must repeal the surtax on national superannuation and must lift the tax on superannuation contributions.

Mr Lange said the Government could not agree to a! bipartisan approach which required concessions from it but not from the | Opposition before work could even begin. “Mr Bolger seems to be •in an acute state of fear about things, judging by yesterday’s speech,” Mr Lange said, referring to a speech Mr Bolger had delivered ((“The Press,” April 19) to Auckland Rotary.