THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, December 19, 1938. SOCIAL SECURITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23686, 19 December 1938, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, December 19, 1938. SOCIAL SECURITY

Mr Nash has signalised his acceptance iof the office of Minister of Social Security by making a' statement which, in effect, is a recapitulation of the benefits that are offered in the recent legislation. His reference, however, to the emergency benefit for which provision is made in the Act seems to imply that in his administration of it the scheme will have an even wider application than has generally been supposed. The inclusion of the emergency benefit ensures, he says, that no case of need that just fails to qualify for a specific benefit will be left without redress. A generous interpretation of the regulations which will have to be issued would seem, therefore, to point to the possibility of a not insignificant enlargement of the benefits that are to be covered by the Act. They will, Mr Nash unctuously asserts, be benefits without parallel anywhere in the world. But, consistently with Ministerial practice, he continues to ignore the crux of the whole scheme, namely, the ability of the country to meet year after year the increasing cost which it will be expected to bear. Already, within six months after the passage of the social security legislation, the financial basis upon which the success of the scheme rests has to some extent been shaken. Not only has there been no such expansion of production as the Government anticipated with a confidence for which there did not, on a reasoned consideration of relevant facts, seem to be sufficient justification. Actually there has been a decline of production, and it would be rash to imagine that it is a well-founded assumption on the Government's part that the policy of insulation, upon which it has now embarked, will give such an impetus to production as will both establish the balanced economy that is desired by it and also furnish a satisfactory foundation for its plan of social security.. The risk that the plan will sooner or later place an undue strain upon the public finances has, in fact, been increased rather than diminished since the legislation was enacted. The Australian Federal Government has seen fit to suspend the coming into operation of its health insurance scheme, less ambitious though it is than that to which the Government in New Zealand has committed the country. It has decided that a postponement is preferable to subjecting the people of the Commonwealth to the danger of the disappointment and disillusionment that would be inevitable if a scheme providing substantial benefits had to be dropped, because of its cost, after it had been brought into operation. It would only be by legislative action that the beginning of the operation of the social security measure as a whole could be delayed in New Zealand. The Government has, however, taken the precaution of providing that the scheme of medical service shall come unto force at "the earliest possible date on which arrangements for its effective administration can be brought into operation. It is open to it; therefore,'"'to decide that this portion of the social security plan, which will not be administered by the Minister of Social Security, but by the Minister of Health, shall not become operative, as the increased pension benefits will, on April 1 next. There is the more reason to suppose that this decision will be taken as the Government seems to have so far not entered into any negotiations with the British Medical Association whose co-operation is necessary if the health service is to be satisfactorily undertaken. And if the health service plan is to remain in abeyance the Government will, from April 1 next, be collecting taxes from the public without affording the full service which <rit had promised. This would, at least, be of advantage to its social security finance.