Well, here’s a change: after more than a century of Australia copying bad policy ideas from New Zealand – votes for women, racial separatism, ‘KiwiBuild’ – the Luxon government is chasing after an idea that’s already failed horribly in Australia. Where have we heard ‘It’ll work this time!’ before?
New Zealand’s conservative government is currently trying to expand the use of “automated decision-making” in the welfare system as part of a concerted effort to rein in public spending.
Wait: New Zealand has a conservative government? Where?
But critics fear the reforms will take crucial decisions about vulnerable people out of the hands of humans and allow algorithms to determine who receives benefits.
We already know how this one will go, because two governments in Australia tried it, in succession. It became known as ‘Robodebt’ and it was a disaster.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development has moved to allay concerns, arguing the technology will make the welfare system easier for people.
“Any decision to decline a benefit will always be made by a staff member,” deputy chief executive of organisational assurance and communications Melissa Gill said.
“There are also no plans to change this.”
We heard the same hubris from Labor’s Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek, when they announced the introduction of automated payment reviews. “The automation of this process,” the pair bragged in a press release. “Will free up resources and result in more people being referred to the tax garnishee process, retrieving more outstanding debt on behalf of taxpayers.”
The result was so horrendous, including multiple suicides, that both Labor and their camp-followers in the legacy media are these days lying through their teeth and trying to blame the opposition for what Labor created.
Serious design flaws created more than 400,000 false debt notices and a royal commission was established amid allegations of political malfeasance and suggestions the fake debts contributed to several suicides.
Hands up who thinks Luxon and co will be uniquely competent where successive Australian governments weren’t? Anybody?
The New Zealand Law Society said the clause regarding automated decision-making “is not limited in any way and the accompanying documentation for the bill contains no analysis of the proposal”.
“It is unclear how automated systems are intended to accurately and appropriately operate where evaluative judgement is required,” it said in a submission to a parliamentary committee considering the legislation.
It’s not all bad in the proposed reforms, though.
Economist Michael Fletcher, who was an expert advisor for the New Zealand government’s Welfare Expert Advisory Group, was surprised the Robodebt scandal was not explicitly mentioned in the government’s “regulatory impact statement”.
But he has broader concerns about the punitive measures included in the legislation, from forcing jobseekers to reapply for benefits every six months instead of annually, to the use of cashless welfare cards […]
“It should really be called the social security ‘hoops and hurdles’ bill because that is really what it’s all about.”
Largely, that is probably true. The system seems to be being designed to make the process the punishment and to encourage discouragement. There’s just one big problem with that, though: the only people who’ll be discouraged are the people who shouldn’t be. Long-term welfare troughers are nothing if not rat-cunning. They quickly enough work out how to game any system. On the other hand, decent people who’ve temporarily fallen on hard times will be the first to just give up.
A cashless welfare card is another decent idea. How good an idea it is can be judged by the fury with which left-wing activists greet it. As happened here, they will almost certainly screech a demented cockatoo chorus of ‘raaaacism!’ But when the data is clear that a particular group has a clear problem with not just alcohol-related violence but welfare payments being used to purchase alcohol ahead of necessities, such as food, or children’s clothing and schooling, how can debit cards which can only be used to spend on necessities and not alcohol be a bad thing?
We see the results of such leftist disregard for consequences in one of the Albanese government’s first acts, abolishing the cashless welfare card being used in some remote Aboriginal communities. From a sharp drop in the wake of the introduction of the cards in 2016, violence and crime almost immediately jumped again after 2022.
