• Building The Knowledge Society In New Zealand
• Modern Welfare Policy Is Part Of The Drive For Prosperity
• Community And Voluntary Sector Working Group
• Social Security Amendment Bill
• Southern Youth Justice Residential Centre
• Duke Of Edinburgh Awards

Building The Knowledge Society In New Zealand

Research and teaching at our tertiary institutions needs to equip New Zealanders to build our own type of knowledge society, Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey told Lincoln University staff and Council members last week.

The new economy will be fundamentally about the application of new technologies, new information, and new competencies to what it is that we know and do well.

New Zealand's wine industry is an example of a primary product that has had its value dramatically increased through the application of specialist knowledge. The industry harnesses the advantages of New Zealand's soil and climate in alliance with the modern technology and practitioners with specialised expertise and flair. The result is a range of differentiated products clearly distinguished as New Zealand made and often competing with the best in the world. Consequently New Zealand winemakers are price-makers rather than price-takers. Tourism and the film industry are further examples of industries that exploit the advantages of New Zealand's location and low population.

In each of these cases the challenge is to move our products and services along the spectrum to incorporate the maximum use of skills, innovation and technology.

Mr Maharey said New Zealand's success as a knowledge society will be based upon:

• leveraging off our unique location and low population density;
• incorporating the advantages offered by the most up-to-date technology;
• offering wide opportunities for the application of domestic skill and innovation to add value to niche-oriented products; and
• having the potential to then sell the expertise and technology developed to the world.

A modern welfare state should play its part in the drive for a more prosperous economy, Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey told the Economist-organised Roundtable with the New Zealand Government in Wellington last week.

The debate about social policy and the welfare state has often been based on a fruitless argument. On one side there have been people who simply want more spending. On the other we have people who want to end the welfare state.

Mr Maharey said that the Government's welfare policies ranged across several portfolios and are aimed at boosting the capability of all New Zealanders to thrive in a changing world. Tertiary policies are directed at developing a more strategically focused system and the Government is working with industry to guarantee a skill base for the 21st century. The Government is scrapping the Community Wage with its focus on welfare and replacing it with a drive to get more people into real jobs in a growing economy. The Government has also begun on the development of a benefit system that is simple, flexible and enables people to take paid work opportunities.

The membership of the Government's new Community and Voluntary Sector Working Group is to be announced this week and the group meets for the first time in Wellington on Monday.

The 12-member working party is being established to develop the framework for an agreement between the Government and the community and voluntary sector. The contribution made by the community and voluntary sector in New Zealand has grown considerably in recent years and the Government wants to ensure it is fully recognised and valued.

The Government introduced a Social Security Amendment Bill to Parliament last week to implement the first step in the reshaping of New Zealand's social assistance system. The Bill places less emphasis on compulsion and more on obtaining sustainable results through working with beneficiaries to make the most of personal and work opportunities.

The bill:

• replaces the community wage with an unemployment benefit and a separate non-work-tested sickness benefit;
• provides for work-test obligations to be set out in an individual job seeker agreement developed between the beneficiary and the Department of Work and Income;
• provides that activity in the community and suitable voluntary work are given the status of recognised community activities for the purposes of the work test;
• provides that participation in unpaid community work is no longer mandatory and that work-test sanctions are not applicable to recognised community activities;
• replaces the current 3-tier work-test sanction regime with a single sanction targeted at serious non-compliance;
• repeals the provisions relating to work capacity assessment; and
• increases the income thresholds for eligibility for the disability allowance.

The Government wants to build a modern social security system which is tailored to the needs of individual beneficiaries and which offers people opportunities to increase their skills so that can earn a decent wage in a decent job.

The Government announced last week that it is no longer considering two Christchurch sites for the location of the proposed southern Youth Justice Residential Centre. A new South Island Residential Centre is needed for young people who have offended and come under the provisions of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act.

The sites were considered inappropriate because of concerns expressed by local residents and the location of the previously favoured site within the Christchurch Prison farm compound. The Government believes that locating a youth justice centre within the confines of a prison does not send the right message to young people who we are trying to rehabilitate within a residential setting.

The Department of Chid, Youth and Family has recommenced the search for a suitable location. Steve Maharey said a decision on a new location is expected within a year.

Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey met with Glenn Duncan, Executive Director of the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards in New Zealand last week. The awards provide a vehicle for young people, aged between 14 and 25 to develop their spiritual, personal and social development, and to gain skills that are essential to a healthy career start. Around 120,000 young people have participated in the Award in New Zealand since it began in 1959. Options to increase the number of award participants through partnerships with government agencies were discussed.