Known as the Dunedin Study, for more than 50 years it has provided valuable insights into why some people live lives dependent on the state.
Led by Sir Bill English, the previous National Government used data from the Dunedin Study to identify the determinants of increasing dependency and developed what was known as ‘‘social investment’’ to break that cycle of dependency.
It remains my biggest regret that the Labour Government hasn’t continued social investment as a model to improve the lives of vulnerable Kiwis.
Despite the increasing billions spent on well-intended programmes, endless Government strategies — 221 at last count — and thousands more people employed to help, traditional public systems and services are increasingly failing to reach New Zealanders in most need of support.
Looking at New Zealand today can present a bleak picture.
Teens ram-raiding shopping malls, thousands of families living in motel rooms and cars, soaring truancy rates, rapidly rising gang membership, declining rates of literacy and numeracy achievement, more children growing up in benefit-dependent households.
Some of New Zealand’s social problems seem at once intractable and avoidable.
National will make social investment a priority and establish a fit-for-purpose social investment agency.
It will use data and research, such as from the Dunedin Study, to identify initiatives that cut across traditional funding sources and invest directly in programmes that improve people’s lives.
National will also establish a new social investment fund to invest in programmes that will change the lives of New Zealanders with the greatest needs.
We will redeploy funding from government initiatives that may have received disappointing social impact evaluations.
It’s unconscionable to me that the Government now spends more than $1 million every day paying the nightly bills of emergency motel rooms for thousands of New Zealanders, paying so much for such a terrible result for those people and their often young families.
Social investment is simply government done well, and will be a driving project for the next National government.
Those who most need government support deserve no less. They certainly deserve better than what is presently provided.
