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NZCPR CAMPAIGNS
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Luke Malpass
The Key government campaigned on reforming welfare, but as the recession bites deeper we shall see if John Key and Paula Bennett are serious or not. This government campaigned on the welfare state helping people, not trapping them in poverty. If this is to become a reality in New Zealand, international experience suggests that the government has its work cut out.
Recently Prime Minister John Key was caught musing over whether New Zealand should follow Australia’s lead and sign up to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Let us all hope that he doesn’t. This inane piece of bureaucratic ‘rights speak’ does few favours to anyone, and its paucity of substance should make it laughable.
Recently I wrote an opinion piece with Jeremy Sammut criticising an editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ).[1] We argued that health is ultimately an issue of personal responsibility and that there is a link between welfare dependence and bad health, which is caused in part by lifestyle choices. Sinking yet more taxpayer money into public prevention campaigns, for example to warn people of the dangers of not exercising, seems foolish and wasteful. It does not address the underlying problems.
