2. AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
What is the Government doing to ensure value for money in its expenditure?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
After years of reckless spending, the Government needs to correct New Zealand’s habit of spending more than it earns. There are many opportunities for gaining better value for money, in particular where there are multiple agencies offering a range of social services to the same people in the same area. Whānau Ora is part of a suite of initiatives that will contribute to the Government’s aspirational agenda for New Zealand by eliminating the continued waste of overlapping programmes, so that we can increase our social capital, improve the welfare of families, and achieve better value for the money that the taxpayer is spending.
There are two in particular. One is the high-trust contracts where the Government has a new type of contract with non-governmental organisations, whereby it operates on the basis of outcomes rather than by ticking boxes, and, secondly, there is Whānau Ora, which is a philosophy and an approach to working with families that builds on their strengths and helps us to sort out the money that is wasted in overlapping social programmes.
As we have explained, there are any number of areas in New Zealand where there are many overlapping contracts, with overlapping requirements for auditing and monitoring. This problem has been around for a number of years. But it appears that Whānau Ora, which focuses on positive benefits for families, will be a very useful tool in bringing together these contracts and in ensuring we can deliver focused services that achieve outcomes, rather than ticks in boxes, and make progress for many New Zealand families.