Look to history for system that worked

Dependency is something the State has created, and it is something that we must address if we are serious about social transformation in this country.IT'S no secret that we need a total overhaul of the welfare system here in Aotearoa.

Parliament passed the first reading of the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill last Thursday, and it was a hotly-debated issue in the house and on the streets.

The legislation as it stands is like a double-edged sword. There are some good, progressive amendments in the bill that provide increased investment into childcare, training, education and support for transport. But, like a poisoned chalice, the good is offset by the scary, in the form of overly punitive sanctions placed on those who do not meet the new obligations established in the bill.

In an ideal world, I would have supported this bill, but in Parliament nothing is ever as simple as that. In fact, most legislation is never perfect in its first form, and so the Maori Party often works hard to critique every piece of legislation. We express our concerns to the minister, and we work towards change.

On tricky issues such as this, we often wait for public submissions to come through the committee phases of the bill, we take the lead of our people, we consider how our stakeholders will be affected, and again we reassess how we can make the changes required to make the bill something positive.

But we couldn't take that approach on the welfare reform legislation, because to be absolutely honest we wondered whether those whose voices mattered the most in this debate would indeed put their hands up and participate in the political process.

Probably not. And that is a terrible truth that we must set about changing. The voices of the most marginalised in this country must be heard on the issues that matter to them.

There is no question that we need a total overhaul of the welfare system. The issue is how we go about making that change and what those changes look like.

I have my views. In fact, when George and I were young one of the most helpful supports that helped us get through the tough times was the ability to capitalise our family benefit. We were young, we didn't have much money, but we were able to capitalise or use part of our benefit as a means of saving towards a deposit on a house.

I found an article from a 1959 article of Te Ao Hou which outlined this fantastic policy. In fact, when you talk to our old people it is initiatives such as this, and the trade training programmes that are remembered as being some of the most successful government policies put in place. I would like to see these things revived for this generation.

Our welfare system should not be about giving our whanau the means to "just survive", we should be looking at ways to keep them supported through the hard times while enabling them to move towards independence from the State in the future.

Dependency is something the State has created, and it is something that we must address if we are serious about social transformation in this country. That is why the empowering approach of Whanau Ora has been critical to supporting our whanau back to independence.

We have ideas, we each have views - the next step for us is to empower those whose voices are not heard in this debate.