Media Release from Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church

Will a kick in the pants work? asks Anglican Church
Friday, 26 March 2010

The Anglican Church’s Social Justice Commission is extremely concerned about this Government’s changes to benefits.

“Benefits provide security to our society’s most vulnerable people, and people who claim them are a part of our society ‘whanau’. Also, this government is working to overcome family violence, so the idea that John Key should want to give some of the most vulnerable in society a kick in the pants is both offensive and absurd. Kicking someone in the pants always does more harm than good," says Dr Anthony Dancer, the Anglican Church’s Social Justice Commissioner.

“We need to be clear that with the number of redundancies and rise in unemployment, particularly prominent among Maori and Polynesian people, even the most highly qualified are finding it hard to find good jobs. Just because a solo parent’s kids go to school, it doesn’t necessarily mean a good job can simply be found at the drop of a hat. Or are beneficiaries supposed to do any work that is going? The kind of work the rest of society doesn’t want to do?”

It is unclear if the Government thinks it will be easier for beneficiaries to find work because they should take whatever work they are offered, while the middle classes continue to make more discerning choices.

“This appears to be another proposal from the Government that will result in worse social outcomes for parents and their tamariki. In fact, it seems to run contrary to the very principles of Whanau Ora,” says Dr Dancer.

Benefit proposals that directly impact upon raising tamariki and the health of society’s more vulnerable people need to be given very careful consideration and a long term view is most important.

Studies show our wellbeing is not fuelled by people getting richer, but by reducing the gap between the rich and poor. In countries with higher disparity between rich and poor tamariki have worse outcomes, people are more unhealthy and life-expectancy is lower. According to OECD studies wealth disparity in New Zealand is already one of the highest, and this Government’s proposed welfare changes don’t look set to improve matters.

“If the Government wants to save money and improve outcomes it would do well to take a long term view for whanau and focus upon reducing wealth disparity, and stop making short term election focussed cuts – from effective youth justice residential programmes, the use of CYFS unsupported child benefit, and now benefit cuts,” commented Dr Dancer.

“We are interested in long term positive outcomes for all New Zealanders. It would be wonderful to work with this Government to help achieve great outcomes. But if it wants to leave its mark, it needs to spend less time pushing its own ‘flagship initiatives’ at the expense of good social outcomes. Otherwise it looks set to pour tax payers money down the drain in the run up to the next election,” said Bishop Muru Walters, Chair of the Commission.

ENDS

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