We present some edited highlights of the Chatterjee report, as a special feature in this issue of The Jobs Letter.

Donald: "This is not just an unfortunate experiment, it's an insidious one. Whether or not it's legal, it certainly is immoral they are playing with the lives of the unemployed. Using job-seekers as human guinea pigs is a further example of the callous way the government is treating the victims of its economic policies. It is particularly cruel that the government blames job-seekers for not finding work, yet at the same time 1,400 of them have been denied the opportunity to participate in the Community Task Force scheme.

Donald also says the experiment is "a futile exercise" because even before the government has measured the effectiveness of the CTF scheme it has extended this pilot into its full Community Wage Scheme. "The Government has committed enormous resources and imposed a massive change in employment strategy without knowing whether or not the pilot scheme has made any significant difference to job-seekers' employment prospects"

Source Press release from Rod Donald 22 July 1998 "Job Seekers Used As Guinea Pigs "

Source _ The Evening Post 23 July 1998 "Work plan backdown angers Nat MP"

The government has also reduced from 18 to 12 months the amount of time a beneficiary will have to comply with work-testing requirements before previous transgressions are wiped out. The appeal period against penalties will now be five working days.

Source _ The Dominion 24 July 1998 "Government under attack over work-plan change"

Brownlee strongly believes that requiring single parents to do community work while their children are at school would provide them with valuable training and work experience. He says he is constantly annoyed that MPs are portrayed as "heartless and uncaring" in their efforts to encourage beneficiaries to do more. He contends that some of the groups that came before the select committee "never agreed with government policy" and appear to "glorify in the dire circumstances people find themselves in" Brownlee says he will continue to fight the softening of the community work provisions in the legislation.

Source _ The Evening Post 23 July 1998 "Work plan backdown angers Nat MP"

In a statement to the select committee, the Commission says that, as currently constructed, the provisions of the Bill are a threat to the well-being of those with mental illness and says that publicity about government's intentions and current Income Support communications and goal-setting practices are endangering their lives. The Commission was particularly concerned about interviews for work readiness, saying that the goal-setting exercises "could be dangerous to the client, including increased risk of suicide"

Source _ _ The Evening Post 23 July 1998 "Work plan backdown angers Nat MP"

Source _ New Zealand Herald 29 July 1998 "Tamihere backs work-for-dole scheme" by Warren Gamble

Newman: "The situation is worsening in spite of the initiatives this government has taken _ there have been 20,000 more people moving into dependency or on to the welfare rolls in the period this coalition has been in power. This means that one in three adults has their major source of income from social welfare payments in one form or another. One in three children live in homes where the major source of income is a benefit. What this means is that one in three NZ children are living on the poverty line"

Source _ The Evening Post 23 July 1998 "ACT decries welfare payments"

Source _ The Evening Post 24 July 1998 "support staff axed"

McCardle, who used to represent the former Heretaunga electorate in Upper Hutt for the National Party, became a NZ First list MP after NZ First adopted his employment ideas as policy.

McCardle says that he had entered Parliament with a clear, particular purpose: "that was to radically overhaul the way that we assist our jobseekers through the creation of a new one-stop shop by going through region-to-region approach and getting jobseekers on an active wage. I have done that . . If you look at my maiden speech, it's a carbon copy of what we've done.

"It's rather marvelous to be able to put in place, after lengthy examination by politicians and officials, what I have long believed in. It leaves me at the point of view of where to from here . . I will talk to my wife and we'll make a decision at the end of the year."

Source The Press 16 July 1998 "McCardle considers his political future"

A shortage of trained people is the major reason given where employers have difficulty in recruitment, The sectors in which the skills shortages are most evident: sales, call-centre-customer service, factory-warehouse-production, accounts and accounting, marketing and general management, information technology, administration-clerical, legal secretaries, and research and development.

Source The Press 21 July 1998 "Skilled staff hard to find" by Alan Williams

Source _ Kiwicareers at http:// www.careers.co.nz.

Source _ Sunday Star Times 19 July 1998 "Men should pay for ex-wives' job training, says council" by

Local Employment Co-ordination manager Jan Francis, who was recently in Britain, reports that local authorities are lobbying government to disregard LETS (Local Exchange and Trading Schemes, as green dollars are by known in Britain) from being considered `income' when assessing benefit entitlements. Francis: "Cash-strapped local authorities, health authorities and the voluntary sector are beginning to find ways in which LETS type exchanges can help them extend their existing services, target resources effectively and establish new partnerships with local communities"

Examples: Leicester City Council has launched Naari LETS, a scheme for Asian women aimed at reducing their isolation; Stockport has also launched a system as part of its Social Services department; Hampshire uses LETS as a way of integrating people with mental health problems back into the world of work. Islington Council is backing a LETS Build pilot scheme to bring accommodation into the trading network. Bristol, Gloucester and Stirling are among those using LETS for allotments to make food available to people on low incomes in return for their time and effort.

Source _ Jan Francis report on Peoples Summit Birmingham 15-17 May 1998

Alice Thompson of The Spectator says that it isn't the aristocracy who are filling their homes with servants, but the "aspirant middle classes", who are working too hard to worry about mopping the floor. This is good news for Britain's New Labour, which is on a mission to "get people off welfare and into work".

One problem: the British no longer want to be servants. In a recent survey, 12% said they thought that any type of domestic work would be beneath them. Lady Charteris, formerly the Queen's private secretary, complains: "Now there are practically no nice English servants left. They're almost all foreigners or lunatics"

Source _ The Week 13 June 1998 "No one wants to be a servant any more" by Alice Thompson from The Spectator

Source _ Conference notice from the internet

"The fact that incomes at the top of the ladder have grown more than those at the bottom is not a bad thing. I think it's an inevitable part of increasing the rewards for effort for people who developed skills and who work. You've got to send the right signal _ that its worth your while sweating blood and tears to study. You should be rewarded for that"
-- Finance Minister Bill Birch

"Nobody disputes the widening income gap. Economic realists positively welcome it, for it means that success in selling goods and services is being rewarded.

"Egalitarianism is a fine instinct and long may NZ'ers express it. But to most NZ'ers it does not mean that everybody should be forced into a narrow band of earnings. Equality is not the highest principle of a healthy community _ opportunity is that. It is the task of good government to see that everybody has a fair opportunity to improve themselves by their own efforts.

"Market rewards have left 80% of households with a smaller share of national income than they held 16 years ago, according to the professor's study. Social research should come with a warning. Relative measures mean that whenever one section of society earns a higher proportion of total earnings, the rest by definition become "poorer". It could be said that 80% have a higher proportion of national income because the lowest 20% have a lower proportion.

"The gaps are widening evenly throughout the income scale in countries with competitive labour markets. It would be a worry if it were not so"
-- editorial in The New Zealand Herald 28 July 1998