The Quest for Social Responsibility

Jonathan Boston, Susan St John, Bob Stephens

New Zealand’s recent economic reforms have reshaped the legislative framework for macroeconomic policies. The two crucial pieces of legislation are the Reserve Bank Act (1989) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act (1994), which aim to ensure price stability and that governments pursue prudent fiscal policies, respectively.

These aims are not ends in themselves: they are means to enhance the welfare of New Zealand’s citizens. However, this economic emphasis has not been matched by a similar emphasis on improving social outcomes, such as decreased poverty and crime, and enhanced health status. To rectify this, one proposal has been a Social Responsibility Act.

This paper considers the desirability of such an Act and its possible content. We explore the current deficiencies in the social policy framework, examine the idea of a Social Responsibility Act using the Fiscal Responsibility Act as a template, then tackle some of the likely objections to such an Act.

We conclude that although a Social Responsibility Act would not be a solution to New Zealand’s social woes, it would impose an obligation on politicians and their advisers to pay greater attention to the social outcomes of their policy decisions, and help make the social aims of  governments more transparent.