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Article Article June 6th, 2019
Health • Legitimacy • Innovation

Is New Zealand’s Wellbeing Budget worth all the hype? - from contributor Michael Mintrom

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Many are heralding @nztreasury's new #Wellbeing Budget as a major policy #innovation. @MikeMintrom of @ANZSOG explores why...

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"We must seek to value and to measure all that makes life worthwhile in #NewZealand" - @grantrobertson1 announcing the #Wellbeing Budget

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Applications for New Zealand's new #Wellbeing budget? #Mentalhealth and criminal justice reform, explains @MikeMintrom #FindingLegitimacy

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New Zealand's first ‘Wellbeing Budget' was delivered last week by the Minister of Finance, Hon Grant Robertson. As the second budget from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Labour-led Coalition government, it signals important changes to policy formulation. Crucially, it treats public policies as investments - a practice previously championed by Bill English, former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, who had a distinguished career in the New Zealand National Party, which governed from 2008-2017.

There is no doubt that the Wellbeing Budget is a major policy innovation. Even before it was delivered, the New York Times proclaimed it ‘the next big move by a New Zealand government seen by progressives around the world as a beacon in increasingly populist times'.

So what's the excitement about and why does it matter?

The Wellbeing Budget is founded on the idea that financial prosperity alone is not a sufficient measure of the quality of life. Echoing a comment by Robert Kennedy in the 1960s, Grant Robertson noted the importance of looking beyond Gross Domestic Product as a measure of our wellbeing. In his budget speech Robertson said we must seek ‘to value and to measure all that makes life worthwhile in New Zealand'.

The Wellbeing Budget was developed with reference to over 60 indicators highlighted within the New Zealand Treasury's Living Standards Framework. The Finance Minister said no previous New Zealand government had used that level of evidence and statistical analysis as the foundation for a budget. Indeed, while the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has long advocated such an approach, New Zealand is the first country in the world to have explicitly adopted a wellbeing budget.

Consider two examples of the new approach.

First, past budgets in New Zealand have funded mental health and addiction services only for those with the highest needs. People with emerging issues or mild to moderate mental health or addiction needs have largely been left to their own resources or have faced lengthy waits before receiving help. Yet it's estimated that the economic cost to New Zealand of serious mental illness amounts to approximately 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product each year. There is no easy way to measure the human misery caused to sufferers and those who care for them. In response, the Wellbeing Budget has made a significant investment to create new frontline services for mental health. The longer-term goal is for health services to be available so that when people reach out for help there is a trained mental health worker immediately available. This is a classic example of promoting primary preventative. But so rarely do we see it.

Second, currently Māori are significantly over-represented in New Zealand's criminal justice system, and rates of recidivism are above 70 percent. To address this, the Wellbeing Budget has allocated funds to a new culturally sensitive, co-designed approach to enable people to experience a Māori and family-centred approach throughout their time in the system. Minister Robertson said: ‘We are acknowledging that our system does not work for the majority of Māori. This is a system change and a cultural change for our prisons'.

Promoting early intervention to address mental health issues and promoting culturally sensitive criminal justice are both examples of treating public policies as investments. Spending on these new approaches is anticipated to improve the quality of people's lives. In the long run, such spending promises to save large amounts of public money. People who prosper and live on the right side of the law also pay taxes and make fewer calls on government support.

New Zealand's wellbeing approach required that any new spending in this budget must advance one of five government priorities:

  1. Improving mental health;
  2. Reducing child poverty;
  3. Addressing the inequalities faced by indigenous Māori and Pacific island people;
  4. Thriving in a digital age; and
  5. Transitioning to a low-emission, sustainable economy.

These requirements forced Ministers to collaborate on funding proposals with their colleagues and fit their proposals to the new criteria. However, this time around, core spending on things like schools, hospitals, and roads was allocated in the usual way. That might change in future budgets.

On behalf of the Labour-led Coalition government, Grant Robertson was careful to state ‘this Budget is just one step in a longer process of reforms'. He added, ‘we do not claim perfection on this first attempt. But we do believe that this Budget represents a significant step forward'.

Politicians, media pundits, public intellectuals and policy analysts around the world will be watching the implementation of this policy innovation with interest. If these reforms can soon deliver better outcomes for those in greatest need, we can be certain other countries will emulate New Zealand's budgetary change.

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We are exploring topics like belonging and wellbeing and their impact on policy and legitimacy. Let us know what you think - is your government looking into this? Is your city? Has policy contributed to your sense of wellbeing - or worked against it? We'd love to know.

#FindingLegitimacy

Written by:

Michael Mintrom Academic Director, Executive Master of Public Administration degree, Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG)
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