Friday, September 17, 2010

Rethinking welfare for the twenty-first century




Rethinking welfare for the twenty-first century


Here are links to the presentations made at the recent forum on welfare

Welfare forum co-hosted by The University of Auckland's Retirement Policy and Research Centre, Public Policy

Group and Departments of Economics and Sociology, and by Child Poverty Action Group.

Date:Friday 10 September 2010
Venue: The University of Auckland Business School, Room OGGB5, Level 0, Owen G Glenn Building,
12 Grafton Road, Auckland

Background

The Government appointed a Welfare Working Group in April 2010 to conduct a wide-ranging and fundamental

review of New Zealand's welfare system, and make practical recommendations to improve the economic and

social outcomes for beneficiaries and New Zealand as a whole. The first report of the Welfare Working Group

is available here. The aim of this Welfare Forum is to move beyond the narrow terms of reference of the Welfare

Working Group, and make recommendations that recognise the current economic climate, and foreground the needs of children.

Presenters

Short biographies of presenters and abstracts of presentations are available here (224KB).

Forum presentations

Susan St John (Associate Professor, The University of Auckland)Welcome and context (800KB)
Paula Rebstock (Chair, Welfare Working Group)Where has the WWG got to? (435KB)
Paul Smyth (Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne)Reframing the social inclusion debate for the 21st century (351KB)
Peter Saunders (Professor, University of New South Wales)Child deprivation in Australia: Findings and implications for welfare reform (315KB)
Eva Bodsworth (Research Officer, Brotherhood of St Laurence)Listening to sole parents - lessons from Australia's "welfare to work" reforms (897KB)
Mike O'Brien (Associate Professor, Massey University)New Zealand context
Paul Callister (Associate Professor, Victoria University of Wellington)General labour market picture in New Zealand(517KB)
Cindy Kiro (Associate Professor, Massey University)Issues and implications for Māori in the reform process (411KB)
Kay Brereton (Advocacy Coordinator, Wellington People's Centre)Reflections form the "coalface"
Keith Rankin (Lecturer, Unitec)Welfare reform: Changing the way we account for taxes and benefits (193KB)
Open discussion
Chaired by M Claire Dale (Research Fellow, The University of Auckland)
Panel discussion: Towards welfare solutions
Louise Humpage (Senior Lecturer, The University of Auckland)Public attitudes and how we should "frame" the debate (1.3MB)
Sue Bradford (Former MP, Alternative Welfare Working Group)Political realities and strategies
Manuka Henare (Associate Dean Māori & Pacific Development, The University of Auckland)Whanau Ora
Susan St John (Associate Professor, The University of Auckland)Summary of the proceedings

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The speakers were well meaning but some were a little detached from the experience of people who rely on welfare. I thought the best speakers were those who worked closely with beneficiaries such as Kay Bereton and the woman who talked to single parents in Australia about how they coped with being forced to work set hours whilst raising families.

Anonymous said...

Yes and "rethinking welfare" sort of implies that maybe we shouldn't have it any more. talk about an "investment model" was all very well for valuing the contribution that beneficiaries actually make, especially mothers, but it is a very capitalist model. Nobody was talking about getting rid of capitalism, yet surely this is the only way to have a chance to create a system based on real human needs.