Former Prime Minister Bill English speaks to an in-mate after awarding a certificate at a graduation for in-mates in at Auckland Prison . Photo / Jason Oxenham
Former Prime Minister Bill English speaks to an in-mate after awarding a certificate at a graduation for in-mates in at Auckland Prison . Photo / Jason Oxenham
OPINION:
The evening I first met Bill English, I had committed — deeply committed — to an afternoon of drinking beer. He’s a very straight guy; no good should have come of our chance meeting. This was back in late 2015 and the then Finance Minister in the Key Governmentwas working up an idea of a social investment model.
I’d like to write about it, I told English at the party we were attending. With what can only be a hat-tip to Heineken-inspired diplomacy, he invited me to the policy launch and a sit-down interview. He probably regretted that. The piece I wrote carried a headline calling him boring. The article itself was more generous.
I liked English’s ideas then, and I’m pleased the National Party is attempting to breathe life back into them now.
Maybe I’m biased. I had a soft spot for him since 2011 when he described the state of our prisons as a moral and fiscal failure. It was a pithy way to describe something undeniably true. But it was only important because it was said by a conservative National Party member. Any left-wing politician could have said the same thing and it would never have raised an eyebrow. When English said it, it was consequential.
As with so much in contemporary politics, it’s not what’s said that’s important, it’s who’s saying it that counts.
English’s observations of our correctional facilities were supported by a sound idea. In fact, more than a sound idea, in my opinion, an absolutely necessary one; that being that we need to get ahead of crime and prevent it, rather than simply punishing people once the damage is done.
Using the Integrated Data Infrastructure, which stores multi-government-agency information, Treasury had identified four risk factors linked to poor social outcomes: CYF (now Oranga Tamariki) reporting abuse or neglect; reliance on a benefit since birth; having a parent in prison or on a corrective sentence; and having a mother without formal qualifications.
Children from families experiencing more of those factors were statistically more likely to have poor outcomes and — because Treasury was involved — were also calculated to cost the state a truckload of money over their lifetimes.
Critics of this idea make valid arguments, notably around the ideas that using big data in this way lacks nuance and intervening in these families may be stigmatising.
The use of big data is a blunt tool, but it can be finessed with a human factor. With regard to stigmatising: the reality is we do that anyway. If young people head to a lifetime on the benefit or end up in prison, they are labelled harshly. The stigma from intervention policies may not be ideal in some instances, but I know what I’d prefer.
A broader criticism, also valid, is that if the country’s social services were simply improved across the board, it would lift all boats and acute interventions would become less necessary. But that’s just an argument for the status quo. And the status quo is not good enough. It’s not even remotely close.
Further to this, the addition of private investment funds to the proposal muddies the waters somewhat, and it remains to be seen whether this is either practical or necessary. This element alone is likely to ensure the approach is not universally favoured.
National leader Christopher Luxon takes an order at McDonalds. Photo / Pierre Nixon
As with anything, then, the devil is in the details. And National is currently light on those. But anything that at least gets us thinking about prevention is an excellent thing. Getting ahead of social problems like crime will save money in the long term, but far more important than that, it means fewer victims in the broadest sense of the term.
How we do that we can debate and argue all we like, but there ought to be no debate that prevention is what we absolutely must do.
If I cross paths with Bill English again, I will buy him a beer.
