Governing the poor in New Zealand
Tuesday 27 June 2017 4.30-5.30pm
Lisa Marriott, Victoria University of Wellington NZ

This seminar will discuss recent developments in welfare and tax systems that have resulted in increased discriminatory treatment of those who are least privileged in New Zealand. These developments include different meanings of ‘income’ for tax and welfare purposes; the introduction of market logics, such as an investment approach and the use of social bonds for funding new welfare programs; and increased use of surveillance and other obligations associated with welfare assistance, including the justice system treatment of those who engage in tax evasion contrasted with welfare fraud; different treatments of debtors to the Crown (taxpayers and welfare recipients); a new law that provides for the partners of welfare fraudsters to be prosecuted and be liable for the debt generated by their partner; and the preferential treatment of the wealthy in the tax system. This seminar highlights the punitive outcomes that arise form modern-day governance of the poor. In doing so, it extends this view to emphasise how governance of the poor privileges the wealthy.

Further details and registration available here.