Clive Bibby: A Welfare State at the Crossroads

The best way to offer meaningful solutions to the country’s modern welfare needs is to first understand the client of the system.

And in association with that understanding needs to be a recognition of the original concept for that original ground breaking, life saving development in our society.

Clearly, those hard bitten, experienced social workers of the Michael Joseph Savage led First Labour Government saw a need for a system that provided a “hand up” rather than a “hand out” for the lower levels who had (often through no fault of their own ) fallen on hard times and were no longer able to support their families in the basic forms of providing food, clothing and shelter.

Let’s be clear. At no time was the new welfare system considered to be a replacement of the responsibilities parents had for the children they had brought into the world!

In fact, previous generations to my own saw those responsibilities as something they regarded as a duty to society and would move heaven and earth in order to fulfil their personal obligations to the country of their birth.

And it became almost a badge of honour for parents who had achieved that priority objective and, by so doing, become regarded by their fellow citizens as people who pulled their weight.

Unfortunately, as the years progressed and the economy boomed after the war, standards, value systems, beliefs and parental responsibilities became less influential in the family unit with parents adopting a more relaxed version of supervision and adoption of community responsibility.

While the transition from a cohesive society based on personal commitment to one more selfishly inclined was gradual at first, the speed of change for the worse has been dramatic since the 1980s and beyond - probably because politicians saw a simple formula for getting elected - promise increases to the welfare budget whether the nation could afford it or even deserved it.

The consequences of these ill judged election bribes would inevitably come home to roost - at times the country came close to bankruptcy.

Latterly, it is almost as if the public has been caught like a possum in the headlights ill equiped to deal with the modern pressures associated with rising unemployment and higher living costs.

The modern reaction to these unavoidable aspects of a society living beyond its means is to demand the government take care of the collateral damage from years of over indulgent living beyond our means.

Sadly, as a nation, we appear to have lost the will to recognise that this situation is all our own doing and the obligation to fix the problem is ours alone.

And the sooner we get real about the need to reinvent our version of the wheel, the sooner we will make progress in returning to a society we can all enjoy being part of.

However, in order to make the changes needed, the first thing we need to do is stop treating certain sections of society as ones who enjoy privileges beyond those available to the average commoner.

These so called “indigenous rights” supposedly based on 1840 treaty principles are the moral equivalent of the nuclear bomb.

Taken to its logical conclusion, this divisive concept is designed in certain political quarters to be the 21st century “hand out” for the privileged few that the founders of the welfare state worked tirelessly to avoid.

For them, welfare was a concept based on equal opportunity for all irrespective of race, religion or position on the social ladder but any changes to the current fraudulent system will require strength of leadership not seen for generations.

It can and will only work when all members of modern society accept their joint responsibilities to make it happen in every body’s best interests.

What are we waiting for!

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.