New Zealanders do not have a welfare system we can be proud of.

Wellbeing research shows that involuntary unemployment is the pits for wellbeing. Think how sapping it would be to your sense of self worth to search fruitlessly for employment for a year or more. You could easily decide your community thinks you are worthless.  Yet in June this year, over 67,000 New Zealanders had been on the Jobseekers Benefit for at least a year. What a waste of human potential.

There is also our intergenerational pipeline of disadvantage. The suffering of an abused and/or neglected child will affect adulthood. We have allowed a big problem to accumulate. Around 15% of children are coming to the attention of the authorities for these concerns before age 18. For Maori it is around 28%, for Asians around 4%.

On average, their outcomes are grim by age 21. They fare badly for education, convictions, and being on a benefit with a child. Their children are at relatively high risk of following the same path.

Anyone who cares about economic inequality should care about this self-refuelling pipeline of misery.

The New Zealand Initiative stands for a free, prosperous, fair and cohesive society. Our welfare system must to do a much better job for those struggling to get on the bottom rung of the ladder leading to fulfilling and meaningful lives.

We think nearly everyone agrees with this goal. The real debate is over means.

Next week (28 November) The New Zealand Initiative will release a new research report. Its title is Welfare, Work and Wellbeing: From Benefits to Better Lives.  Sue Bradford has written a constructive foreword. It engages with the debate about means. The New Zealand Initiative greatly appreciates her honest contribution.

The National-led government’s fiscal liability approach is one point of contention.  Briefly it measures the likely future cost of welfare benefits to beneficiaries of working age in June each year. Those measures help assess progress in reducing benefit dependency sustainably. The opposing concern is that a fiscal focus could be at the expense wellbeing.

Our report addresses these issues. It summarises the outgoing government’s initiatives. It assesses their strengths and weaknesses. It provides some international context and makes recommendations for future directions.

Current outcomes are shameful and unacceptable, particularly for Maori. Please read our report and enter the debate.