Foreword
The ninth issue of the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand returns to a broader view of social policy issues. While the topic of welfare dependency is well canvassed, so too are many other important areas of interest, from the broadest level of analysis to the development of some very interesting programmes.
It is gratifying to see the journal attracting such a wide range of contributors, including members of most New Zealand universities and a number of government departments, a diversity of independent writers, and people working within the community. This permits the journal to fulfil an important role as a forum for manifold perspectives on social policy matters.
Ultimately, however, the main purpose of the Journal has always been to encourage debate on key policy questions. Of these, probably the most long-lived controversy in these pages has been the ongoing discussion of poverty measures. Issue Nine continues this with Brian Easton's arguments concerning the work of the New Zealand Poverty Measurement Project Team (published in Issue Five), with a response, in turn, from the members of that team: Robert Stephens, Charles Waldegrave and Paul Frater. This issue also presents a very different contribution to the measurement of poverty (and other aspects of deprivation) in the small-area-based index NZDep91, designed by Peter Crampton, Clare Salmond and Frances Sutton to meet a range of needs in the areas of funding, research and advocacy.
Vasantha Krishnan (who began the Journal 's poverty measurement discussion in Issue Four) presents a paper which focuses on the divergence among older households, between those with high and low incomes with respect to the shifting mix of public and private retirement income on which they depend, examining both the impact of these trends on older people and the increasing vulnerability of older workers. The subject of retirement income is further developed with a contribution from David Preston, who was Technical Advisor to the Independent Referendum Panel to the Compulsory Retirement Savings Scheme Referendum which took place in September of this year. His paper places the scheme in the broader context of the history of New Zealand public pensions over the past century.
The interrelated topics of poverty and welfare dependence are approached from several vantages. Susan Baragwanath argues the need to fill the policy gap regarding provision of education for teenage parents. She presents "He Huarahi Tamariki - A Chance for Children", which is aimed ultimately at giving these young people the opportunity to get the qualifications they need to become self-supporting.
Rose O'Neill's two papers focus on welfare dependence as a community-wide issue, discussing various aspects of a project which created a government-community partnership for the social and economic development of the Opotiki Local Territorial Authority. Her strategic frameworks paper outlines three theoretical perspectives (environmental scanning, inter-business networking and negotiation processing) which were found to be very useful in setting up the project, while the second paper outlines the processes of the developmental stage of the project itself.
A quite different (and all-encompassing) policy innovation is proposed by Keith Rankin, who describes an entirely new type of assistance founded on a universal basic income (or individual "social wage"). His provocative and detailed plan has a very respectable theoretical provenance. An accompanying paper by Michael Goldsmith supports it with a consideration of the notion of a universal basic income, focusing discussion on aspects of the concept of citizenship. We hope that these contributions will spark further debate on these issues.
Three other papers are also bound to stimulate response. Anne Else's vigorous analysis of current social policy picks out some of the underlying assumptions about the roles of men and women, specifically with respect to the division of labour in society. She identifies the contradictions inherent in these assumptions and the resulting weaknesses in the social policies that are built upon them. Jane Higgins criticises the policy analysis surrounding recent reforms as inadequately addressing the costs of these policies, and argues for the need for transparency in policy discourse to make trade-offs visible. Grant Duncan expresses his concerns regarding trade-offs between cost and quality in the provision of social services, and the need to manage the risks built into these trade-offs very carefully. Mike Doolan responds to these concerns on behalf of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Service.
At the broadest level of analysis, Richard Shaw examines New Zealand's new proportional representation electoral system and looks at how it will influence the current policy landscape, particularly given the institutional arrangements put into place by the State Sector Act 1988, the Reserve Bank Act 1989, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994. Mark Barrett looks at Māori health purchasing, but from a number of perspectives which include Treaty of Waitangi issues, the impact of recent health reforms and a range of purchasing models. Also in the health field, Mary Adams, Brenda Ratcliff and Roger Macky discuss the processes involved in implementing a results-based performance measurement system in the Occupational Safety and Health Service.
Jo Cribb takes up the theme of domestic violence which has featured prominently in previous issues of the Journal. She addresses the findings of her research with Western Samoan women, and lays down a challenge to both policy makers and service deliverers who work in this area. Judy Brown reviews Adrienne von Tunzelmann's Social Responsibility and the Company, which opens up a topic largely new to the Journal, and provides an insightful analysis of the relationship between business and community. Bev James, in her review of Social Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand by Christine Cheyne, Mike O'Brien and Michael Belgrave, focuses her critique on the areas of Māori social policy and health policy.
Issue Nine is rounded out with a review of the AIDS Impact Conference by Clive Aspin which emphasises the effects of the epidemic on developing countries and the need for preventive programmes to be as diverse as the communities affected.
All in all, this issue of the Social Policy Journal should provide much to nurture thought and debate. If you wish to respond, I would welcome your contribution.
Elizabeth Rowe
General Manager
