Treasury’s covert & extremely odd welfare consultation

19 November 2014

A report this morning that Treasury is ‘crowd sourcing’ ideas on welfare policy is news to Auckland Action Against Poverty, even though we are currently one of the most active groups in the area.

“Today’s Herald article is the first we’ve heard of this supposedly public consultation,” says AAAP coordinator Sue Bradford.

“It makes us wonder what efforts, if any, Treasury has taken to reach out to the community.

“The deadline for submissions is 4 December. The first call for public input was evidently made on 6 November, leaving one month for any interested individual or group to contribute.

“It is incomprehensible and insulting that anything useful will come such a covert, token consultation.

“A first scan of the Treasury website this morning reveals no evidence of a call for public input on approaches to welfare.

“The ridiculous notion that a Government department with no previous expertise in the area should suddenly be the prime source of new ideas on welfare policy demonstrates the shallow and ideological nature of John Key’s post-election call for advice on how better to deal with child poverty.

“The Government already has a huge amount of existing material to draw on from its own specialist department in the area, university researchers and community based organisations.

“It is an insult to generations of highly paid Ministry of Social Development policy advisors that Treasury has suddenly become the go-to department in this area.

“Beyond MSD, we also suggest that Treasury officials take a serious look at the many useful and well researched publications put out by organisations like the Child Poverty Action Group and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

“We also commend to Gabriel Makhlouf’s attention Welfare Justice for All, the final report of the Alternative Welfare’ Working Group’s 2010 community consultation process.

“Auckland Action Against Poverty could submit many useful ideas for Treasury’s consideration. The absence of any invitation or even any publicised pathway to contribute makes us doubt any genuine commitment to ‘crowd sourcing.’

ENDS

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