BY FELICITY COGGAN
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Prime Minister Jennifer Shipley used the occasion of the opening of parliament in Wellington February 17 to announce her government's intentions to push ahead with new attacks on the social wage. This followed her announcement the previous day that New Zealand military forces would join Washington's military build up against Iraq.

A centerpiece of Shipley's February 17 speech was the launching of a proposed "Code of Social and Family Responsibility" in the form of a questionnaire to be posted to all New Zealand households, with the results supposedly to be collated for a report to the government in late July.

The code defines 11 "key issues" that the government claims are of concern to "New Zealanders," and asserts an "expectation" for each area. It poses several leading questions for respondents to answer, and asks whether the code should be passed into law, or adopted as a policy guide for government.

The central theme of the code is that working people are to blame for the social crisis bred by capitalism, and that the solution is for individual workers and their families, not the government, to take responsibility for meeting social needs.

With questions like: "What more can the government do to encourage beneficiaries into work?" and "Should the courts have the power to make parents set curfews or attend parenting courses?" the form is being used by the government to establish a mandate for attacks on social and democratic rights.

One of the supposed expectations presented is that "People will do all they can to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy," because "society also pays when we don't take care of ourselves. There are huge demands on our health system." The implication is that working people are to blame for the declining availability of health care. In a similar vein, another expectation states, "People will take responsibility for developing the skills and knowledge they need to help them get a job, or take on a new job."

A particular target throughout the code is working people who receive unemployment, sickness, and single parent benefits. In the section "Managing Money," it says, "Most people manage their money well. But there are some who don't.... People who budget well have greater control of their lives. They are less dependent on other people, including taxpayers." Then it asks, "If a person on a benefit keeps applying for special needs grants, but refuses budget advice, should their benefit be paid through a money manager until the problem is sorted out?"

Two-decade offensive on social gains
The "Code of Social and Family Responsibility" is the latest initiative in a two-decade offensive by National Party and Labour Party governments to make inroads into the social gains of working people. This has included measures to reduce access to public health care, cut spending on education, and lower benefits paid to the unemployed, the sick and disabled, single parents, and the elderly.

Following the formation of the National-New Zealand First coalition government in December 1996, rightist New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, the deputy prime minister and treasurer, said that the coalition government would be distinguished by the prominence it gave the value of self- reliance and the need to shift people "from state dependence to independence," according to the New Zealand Herald. A number of proposals, including introducing a "work for the dole" scheme, were written into the coalition agreement between the two parties.

In March 1997 the government hosted a "Beyond Dependency" conference to promote schemes to cut social benefits. One example presented was the "Wisconsin Works" program in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, which includes time limits for benefits, work for the dole schemes, and requiring single mothers to seek work when their infants are 12 weeks old.

The "Code of Social and Family Responsibility" was first proposed by Peters in his June 1997 budget. At that time it was to apply to beneficiaries only, as a "contract" between them and the "taxpayer."

"If you are a beneficiary who has certain obligations that you are not fulfilling, then we've got a very clear message to you: the taxpayer expects better and we're going to get better out of you," Peters said. The code was later widened to include all New Zealand residents. However, who its central targets are - working people on benefits, women, and Maori - was made clear by Peters in a speech to the Maori Council in March. He said that welfare dependency had seen many Maori lose hope, so they no longer try for a job or dream of a higher education. "The code of responsibility is about breaking that cycle. We need to encourage them to work hard, to get a good education, to build a future and attain a higher standard of living."

The replacement of National Party prime minister James Bolger by Jennifer Shipley last December was greeted in ruling circles as an opportunity to take further steps to shore up capitalist profits and stability, in particular by cutting government spending on social services. Many big- business voices had criticized the Bolger-led government for stalling on this course. The Bolger government had faced a series of protests against the impact of cuts in health and education spending and its plans to gut workers' holiday entitlements.

When she took over as prime minister on December 8 last year, Shipley stated in an interview in the New Zealand Herald that a fresh attack on "welfarism" was at the top of her agenda. Five days later, she announced a 70 percent increase in the levies paid by workers towards government- funded accident compensation, and a 10 percent decrease in employer contributions. Prominent business figures have issued strong reminders to Shipley to stay on this course. This stance is echoed by the International Monetary Fund, which in a January report urged the government to trim its spending program and cut expenditure on superannuation (retirement pensions) and other benefits, particularly in light of the Asian currency crisis.

The release of the "Code of Social and Family Responsibility" coincides with other government moves against social benefits. These include introducing more work testing, reducing higher-paid benefits to the level of the lower-paid unemployment benefit, and combining the government Employment Service, which registers unemployment, with Income Support, which pays benefits in order to better police unemployed workers.

Downturn in New Zealand economy
These moves come at a time when the New Zealand economy is heading into a downturn, with declining business confidence and a wave of factory and retail store closures largely as a result of the Asian crisis. Official unemployment stands at 6.7 percent of the workforce. Twenty- one percent of the working-age population receives benefits, while 30 percent of children live in families that depend on such benefits for income.

Shipley uses this fact to claim that "the community is crying out for `pegs in the ground' in terms of what is fair, what can reasonably be expected from each of us and from government on behalf of all taxpayers." In fact, the government cutbacks in entitlements already in place have been reflected in a significant slowing of growth in numbers on benefits. And payment levels have only just caught up with the amounts paid before the welfare cuts imposed by the National government in 1991, not allowing for inflation.

The combined impact of the economic crisis and benefit cuts was reflected in an April 1996 study, which showed that 20.5 percent of the New Zealand population lives below a poverty line of NZ$16,891 a year for two adults and one child. (NZ$1.00 = US$0.56) The incidence of poverty was two and a half times higher among Maori and three and a half times higher among Pacific Islanders.

Promotion of "family values" and the "work ethic" has been a theme of spokespeople from both coalition parties in promoting the code. Speaking in Wellington March 26, Shipley called for the reintroduction of religion in state schools and praised those that were already breaching the law. Secular education had "created an amoral environment," she said. Public education in New Zealand has been secular since 1877.

Rightist voices have been emboldened in this atmosphere. One rightist group, Catholic Action, has been organizing weekly protests outside the newly opened national Museum in Wellington to demand that two art works on display, that it describes as "blasphemous," be banned. The controversy has fueled public debate on censorship.

The opposition Labour party has stated its opposition to the code. However, last year it issued a warning to working people to lower their expectations of a Labour government if elected, explaining that it was cutting back its spending plans announced at the last election. The Alliance party and the Council of Trade Unions have also criticized the code, while the right-wing party ACT endorses it, though saying it does not go far enough.

Felicity Coggan is a member of the Engineers Union in Auckland.  
 
 
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