Is it time we called the coalition government’s policies ‘austerity’? - Anaru Eketone

THREE KEY FACTS:

• All government departments have been forced to slash their spending and make major job cuts.
• Finance Minister Nicola Willis said at this year’s Budget that “savings and reprioritisation will be a feature of future Budgets, just as they have been in Budget 2024″.
• Salvation Army says government cuts are leading to continued hardship for tens of thousands.

Anaru Eketone is an associate professor in social and community work at the University of Otago.

OPINION

Is it now time to call the National-led Government’s policies the “A-word”?

No, not that one, but “austerity”. Following the last election we all expected, and many of us voted for, a tightening of the Government’s belts, but the promise from this Government was that this would not affect front-line services.

First, we had a hiring freeze in the health sector that meant that doctors and nurses unable to get work are now heading overseas at the very time the health system is straining under staff shortages.

Now we see large cuts to social services supporting some of our most vulnerable families.

Thousands joined a Budget Day protest outside Parliament.

It is not uncommon for right-wing Governments to cut funding to see if services can still be provided and then, if they can, cut again until it hurts. However, the societal group that gets the hurt is never the top 20%.

Trying to save money by cutting the not-for-profit sector makes little sense if it is a false economy because many of the services they are cutting are also preventative, the absence of which creates greater costs further down the line.

A few years ago I did some research interviewing workers for non-government organisations (NGOs) and compared their approach to those working in government services.

We found that NGOs often target hard-to-reach populations, improving these groups’ access to services and so improving health and welfare outcomes. These community-based groups can do things cheaper because their workers are paid less and have fewer managerial staff and less administration costs.

About 40 Woolworths workers in Whanganui joined a nationwide protest over pay and staffing. Photo / Mike Tweed

While government workers were usually highly professional, their mandated roles can be both a help and a hindrance when working with vulnerable families.

The negative impacts of past practices by Oranga Tamariki through its various iterations have been highlighted in numerous reports from the recent abuse in care report to the various reviews of the agency. This can bring about resistance to engagement because of the pain and lack of trust caused by those past practices. Community-based NGOs are often better placed to overcome this resistance and are one of the reasons why Oranga Tamariki and other government agencies fund and purchase services from these groups.

A further benefit of the not-for-profit sector is the speed and flexibility with which they can respond to the challenges they find their clientele are facing.

It is these NGOs that often respond immediately to emerging issues such as teenage suicide, housing crises and drug and domestic abuse. We saw during the Covid crises how NGOs responded quickly and efficiently to needs as they arose. Whether it was providing food or support or organising vaccinations, the not-for-profit sector was able to gear up quickly and sometimes very creatively.

When I went to get my first Covid vaccination and we were all lined up in our cars, I happened to talk to a manager of the Māori NGO organising it. When asked how it was going he said that it was simple, just like organising the processing chain at the freezing works. An unfortunate metaphor, however, it illustrated how they were able to draw in skills from around the community.

Community-led services where the workers are from that community have wider and deeper networks and, when working in partnership with the state, can come up with creative interventions, so the announced cuts to the not-for-profit sector were shocking. Some services are having to lose a third of their workers who are qualified and experienced social workers and counsellors.

These are the groups that work with vulnerable families both in prevention and intervention. Do people really think that Oranga Tamariki is the “one stop shop” that does all the work required with vulnerable young people and their families? Of course it doesn’t. It refers children, young people and their families to organisations with specific skills such as counselling, family support, budget advice and therapy often run by these not-for-profit organisations from which the Government is cutting funding.

I toyed with using the word “austerity” at the start of this article because there is a deterioration of government health and social services by deliberate underfunding that is affecting the most vulnerable in our society.

Anaru Eketone.

Maybe the issue is the fact that they are not-for-profits who pour any excess money back into the community. If they were making profits for their shareholders, then maybe this Government would take more notice of them instead of giving tax breaks to landlords who obviously have the ear of the Government.

These cuts will make for less effective services, the loss of qualified and experienced staff, and will result in a grimmer long-term outlook. I fear the Government’s answer to the increased social problems we may face will cost us more through expensive prisons and probably private prisons run for profit.