Since 1984, social and economic reform has occurred at a
pace which has no precedent since 1935, when the first Labour Government came
to power.
Some of the most notable reforms (not presented in strict
chronological order) are:
•
the floating of the foreign exchange rate;
•
the transformation of state trading departments into
State Owned Enterprises and the subsequent privatisation of some of them;
•
the flattening of the income tax scale and the
elimination of many exemptions;
•
the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax;
•
elimination of most import restrictions;
•
the changes in Māori affairs policy, reflected in the
replacement of the Department of Māori Affairs by Manatu Māori and the Iwi
Transition Agency, and the subsequent replacement of those agencies with Te
Puni Kōkiri;
•
legislatively mandated changes to the structure of
local and regional government;
•
extensive changes to the child protection and juvenile
justice systems brought about through the Children, Young Persons and Their
Families Act;
•
changes in the structure of government funded health
services (including the creation of a funder/provider separation through the
replacement of Health Boards with the Regional Health Authority / Crown Health
Enterprise structure);
•
extensive changes in the operation of the labour
market, brought about through the Employment Contracts Act;
•
extensive changes to the mode of operation of state
agencies as a consequence of the State Sector Act and the Public Finance Act;
•
changes within both the health and welfare sectors
directed towards "deinstitutionalisation" of services;
•
the incorporation of traffic enforcement within the
police, brought about through the amalgamation of the Transport and Police
Departments;
•
numerous job creation and work training schemes
(ACCESS, MACCESS, Taskforce Green, TOPS, etc);
•
the introduction of the National Superannuation tax
surcharge, and the subsequent tightening of the surcharge;
•
the introduction of the Guaranteed Minimum Family
Income for families supported by a full-time earner;
•
the introduction of some data sharing between the
Inland Revenue Department and the Department of Social Welfare;
•
extensive changes to the child support system,
including transfer of its administration from the Department of Social Welfare
to the Department of Inland Revenue:
•
the abolition of Family Benefit and the introduction of
Family Support;
•
the reduction (announced in December 1990 and
implemented from April 1991) of most social security benefit rates, and the
introduction of a modified system of supplementary assistance (in the form of
Special Needs Grants, Special Benefit, and the Accommodation Supplement);
•
the increase in the qualifying age for National
Superannuation;
•
the introduction of new health charges, with the
introduction of the Community Services Card as a mechanism for income testing
previously untested health subsidies;
•
the increase of the school minimum leaving age from 15
to 16 years;
•
the rise in age for eligibility for unemployment
benefit from 16 to 18 years;
•
rises in tertiary education fees;
•
the application of parental income testing to student
allowances;
•
the introduction of repayable student loans;
•
the contracting of some state agency functions (e.g.
DSW debt recovery) to the private sector;
•
the withdrawal by the state from the provision of
subsidised rental housing and the introduction of the income tested
Accommodation Supplement; and
•
the reduction of the state child care subsidy for
persons who are not in paid work.
