Wednesday 26 January, 2005
Whatever happened to community responsibility?
Mr Brash’s proposals for welfare reform would see greater responsibility for the needy and vulnerable in our society
passed from the State to church and community agencies, as was the case in the 1990s, says Catholic social justice
agency Caritas.
Catholic social teaching says that our society is judged on how it treats the most poor and vulnerable. “Church agencies
were in the front line dealing with the poverty, ill-health, overcrowding and misery caused by the 1991 benefit cuts,
and many of the ‘Kiwi battlers’ that Mr Brash addresses also experienced this poverty, either first hand, or through
their relatives, friends and neighbours” said Caritas research and advocacy officer Lisa Beech.
“Debates around the shape of benefit assistance are necessary and ongoing, however it is noticeable that Mr Brash does
not address those who receive benefits, but rather those who he believes resent contributing taxes towards community
welfare,” she said.
Caritas brought Fr Fred Kammer of Catholic Charities USA to New Zealand in 1999 to discuss the effects of US welfare
reform. Fr Kammer told New Zealand church groups that following welfare reform, initial requests for emergency
assistance from church agencies across the United States increased by 19-20%, with some states reporting increases as
high as 300%.
Caritas supports and encourages moves which assist people into employment, but prefers supportive measures which help
overcome barriers to employment such as discrimination against people with disabilities, or the cost and quality of
childcare, rather than punitive measures that punish people who are not able to find work.
Caritas also strongly opposes the introduction of measures which would reduce assistance to women who have additional
children while receiving a benefit. These measures were strongly opposed by the US Catholic Bishops as being likely to
increase abortions.
“One US study found that family caps increased abortions among welfare recipients, while others have found little impact
on fertility, but substantially increases hardship of families with newborn babies,” said Lisa Beech. She said Caritas
will not support any policy that would lead to an increase in pressures on women to end pregnancies.
Lisa Beech said Mr Brash did not take into account the impact of deinstitutionalization of people in psychiatric
hospitals and similar institutions in considering the rise in sickness and invalids benefit numbers. “In addition, work
capacity testing of ACC recipients in the late 1990s also had an impact – many people did not find work through this
process, but were simply transferred to another government department.”
When Caritas wrote to Mr Brash in 2004 asking for National’s policy on family incomes and child poverty, his reply was
that “policy in this area was still under consideration”.
“His party needs to consider its position on child poverty before introducing measures which would increase the hardship
of children and their families,” said Lisa Beech. Caritas will continue to study and respond to National’s welfare
reform policy as well as other parties’ policies on welfare, social security and child poverty.
ENDS