AUSTRALIA FOLLOWS N.Z. EXAMPLE IN SOCIAL SECURITY

Grey River Argus, 24 August 1948, Page 4

AUSTRALIA FOLLOWS N.Z. EXAMPLE IN SOCIAL SECURITY

Reciprocity in Pensions and Benefits P.A. AUCKLAND, August 23. An extension of the reciprocal arrangements for pensions and otner benefits will be discussed in New Zealand by the Director-General of Social Services for Australia, Mr F. H. Rowe, who to-day arrived in the liner Aorangi. He said that Australia had reciprocity with New Zealand so far as the invalidity benefit and age benefits were concerned. Arrangements were now being made to include the widow’s pension, cnild endowment, unemployment and sickness benefits in the scheme. Mr Rowe said that negotiations were begun about two years ago and they were given some impulse by a conference in London last year, when representatives of the British Commonwealth discussed the reciprocity

of social services throughout the Empire. Arrangements between Australia and New Zealand were now almost complete, and he had come to New Zealand to settle the final details. Another object of his visit, he said was to examine certain aspects of this country’s rehabilitation measures and its medical service scheme, and also to closely study what is being done in the way of the dental services. The Commonwealth Government was seriously considering for Australia somewhat similar schemes to those now operating in New Zealand. The medical profession had not yet accepted the Government’s proposals for the medical scheme in Australia and they were still being discussed. He thought that the Government had every hope of introducing and enabling legislation for its schemes at the forthcoming session, which commences next month.

Doctors had to Adopt Free Medicine Scheme ' PERTH, August 22 Although the primary attitude of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association towards the Dominion’s national medicine scheme was to have nothing to do with, it, the association had finally found that it had to co-operate with the Government, said Dr E. H. M. Luke, chairman of the New Zealand Council of the 8.M.A., at a snecial meeting of W’estern Australian doctors. He added that New Zealand was somewhat of a guinea pig in trying out free medicine. “The method was thrust upon the association, but we found our own standards _ were tending to depreciate, and decided to sort out some of the mess the politicians had got us into,” he said. “When the scheme was started, some 80,000 people used it. The figure has now dropped to about 15,000.” A joint committee of the Health Department and the association which had started sitting in 1947 had submitted several proposals to the Government, which it was hoped would be accepted. Dr Luke’s address was warmly applauded. In Western Australia, as i.i the other Australian States, the free medicine scheme has met with the hostility of the profession. Only three doctors in Western Australia subscribe to it.