The National-led government is taking the first steps in preparing for the dismantling of the welfare state.
Prime Minister John Key’s speech to the Philanthropy NZ conference yesterday calls for rich people to give more to charities. Good on him. He recalls his ’Burnside speech‘ in January 2007 about the so-called underclass (he’s always going back to this, have you noticed?), in which he spoke about:
“promot[ing] a culture of generosity and giving, and how the Government needs to get behind the community and voluntary groups that make a real difference in our communities. I said I didn’t think “more government” is the solution to every problem.
Lefty campaigner John Minto responded in his Herald column thus:
[Key] sees the solution as donations from businesses and more government funding for community groups working with families. It’s a charity model based on the philanthropy of Victorian England, whereby the undertaxed rich patronise the deserving poor.
Minto was spot on. Indeed the National Party should be straight up about its real intentions regarding charity. I’ve seen no evidence to persuade me that the thinking on National’s front bench is much different from the Libertarianz policy on social welfare, which says:
“Libertarianz will leave you free to practise voluntary charity. All state benefits – including unemployment, sickness, and DPB – would be phased out to permit the growth of voluntary charities and private insurance.
This is not far off what was happening in the late 1990s, when administration of the the dole and the unemployed was going to be divested from WINZ and handed to charities. Don’t believe me? That’s exactly what the Howard government did in Australia. their equivalent of Work and Income, Centrelink, doesn’t find people jobs; private employment agencies are contracted to do it. These are called Job Network members and include charities such as The Salvation Army and St Vinnie’s as well as private and not-for-profit agencies.
Are things starting to click now?
In his Philanthropy NZ speech, Key is saying to his rich mates, “we’re cutting your taxes, so you’re duty bound to stump up some of that to charities. Then we’ll be able to hand over social welfare to charities, slash the public service more, and then chop more off your taxes.”
I challenge the rightwingers out there to put their hands on their hearts and declare on their great grannie’s grave that they don’t want that.
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