Another New Zealand Experiment: A Code of Social and Family Responsibility.

• Author: Jamison, Andrea

edited by Judith Davey, Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington

In 1998 the New Zealand government announced that it was going to introduce a "Code of Social Responsibility". The aim of the Code was to clarify the relationship between the state and its citizens, particularly in relation to the welfare system, which was facing mounting economic and social pressures. The then Minister of Social Policy, Roger Sowry, claimed the Code would change the future direction of social policy. Opposition spokesperson Steve Maharey suggested the Code signalled the end of the welfare state and government backing out of its social responsibilities.

What followed was intense public debate about the respective responsibilities, and rights, of government, communities, families and individuals. At the centre of this debate was a discussion booklet on which a consultation process was based. Over 1 million booklets were posted to households and box-holders, eliciting 94,303 responses.

Another New Zealand Experiment: A Code of Social and Family Responsibility makes a case study of the Code as a social policy initiative. It examines the content of the Code and the ideas behind it, as well as the processes used to develop it. The foreword correctly describes Another New Zealand Experiment as "an important contribution to both the debate on the role of government in influencing family interactions and to the history of public policy in New Zealand".

The book is divided into two parts. In the first part Judith Davey describes the development of the Code chronologically in an interesting and informed way. The reader is systematically led through the Code's antecedents, its development and content, the debate surrounding it and responses to that debate, and the outcomes of the exercise. Very useful contextual comment is also provided about recent social policy trends, such as the notion of the "third way", increased focus on social responsibility and reciprocity, and changes in the role of government. The Code is presented as both a stand-alone initiative and as part of wider social policy development.

The second part of the book is divided into four chapters, each with a different author. In chapter seven John Angus examines the Code as a family policy initiative and considers how it might help to define the relationship between the role of the state, family responsibilities and good parenting. In his role as senior policy manager at the...