An important time for your voice to be heard

Kete Kupu 47 July 2018

Wellbeing is the word du jour in government as the Labour-led coalition seeks to shape how government spending and reporting of progress will be assessed. The Government is undertaking a huge amount of consultation and seeking feedback far and wide on how it should go about its work.

Such opportunities for comment and input in to new policy development do not come around often and NZCCSS urges all those in our communities to take the chance to share you experiences and views, your stories of success and the needs and aspirations of the whanau, families and communities that you are part of. For some of the strategies and changes being talked this will be the best opportunity in a decade for real change and there may not be similar chances for another decade.

Greater Equality Leads to Higher Wellbeing

The NZ Treasury has been tasked by Finance Minister Grant Robertson with preparing a Wellbeing Budget in May 2019. To guide this approach Treasury is working together with StatsNZ to design a Living Standards Framework for Monitoring Intergenerational Wellbeing. NZCCSS is part of the Equality Network that is focusing on the importance of reducing inequality in promoting greater wellbeing for all in this country. How wellbeing is distributed amongst New Zealanders is crucial and we argue that measures of income and wealth inequality need to be central to any monitoring framework. Read more in our newsletter Kete Kupu #47 July 2018 p.10.

The Child Wellbeing Strategy is being developed and the Child Wellbeing Unit in the Prime Minister’s department is seeking comment right now on ideas for the strategy. NZCCSS Policy Advisor Sonia Scott has more on this in the July Kete Kupu on p.6.

Parallel to this, the Social Investment Agency set up under the previous National-led government is re-branding social investment approach into “investing in social wellbeing”. The SIA has hit the road and is holding a series of workshops up and down the country as well as seeking feedback on what investment in wellbeing means in practice. Your can read more about this in Garth Nowland-Foreman’s article in the July Kete Kupu on p.4.

The Wellbeing of Older People

Wellbeing most also be at the centre when we look at the changes to key services for older people. NZCCSS is putting the wellbeing of older people and their whānau, families and communities at the centre of our responses to the reviews and consultations happening in this space.

The Positive Ageing Strategy is all about promoting positive attitudes to older people and responding well the to the opportunities and challenges of our ageing population. The current Strategy has been around since 2001 and Minister Tracey Martin is asking for comment from all of us about how to refresh this strategy. See the July Kete Kupu article on p.8.

Click on this link to download the PDF of Kete Kupu 47 July 2018.