Summary from a David Shearer speech:

We have a social contract in New Zealand. It works like this: if you need help because of something unexpected: an accident, a loss, or if misfortune befalls you, you will be supported.

But once you’re back on your own feet, we expect you to pull your weight once again and contribute back to society.

The Government’s role is to ensure that this transition happens – through up-skilling, education and a nudge behind those not meeting their side of the contract.

That people could end up in hardship through no fault of their own, and in those cases we have a responsibility to provide a decent standard of living.

But it’s never been about all take and no give.

The other side of the contract is that everyone has a responsibility to contribute to their community. You didn’t get social security if you could work. If you couldn’t work, your community looked after you.

Full section of speech:

I understand Anne-Marie’s father-in-law was the press secretary to Walter Nash, the former Labour prime minister.

I am going to talk to you about something Nash stood for that I think is just as applicable today: He wanted to make sure everyone got a fair go, whether they were a retired New Zealander, or a young family just starting out.

The basic social contract back then was that everyone would pull their weight, do the right thing, and they expected the government to keep its side of the bargain.

Last year before the election, I was chatting to a guy in my electorate who had just got home from work. In the middle of the conversation, he stopped and pointed across the road to his neighbour.

He said: “see that guy over there, he’s on a sickness benefit, yet he’s up there painting the roof of his house. That’s not bloody fair. Do you guys support him?”

From what he told me, he was right, it wasn’t bloody fair, and I said so. I have little tolerance for people who don’t pull their weight.

We don’t like others ripping the system off – and those who get most incensed about it are people like this bloke who works hard, does what he believes is the right thing and earns close to the minimum wage.

His comment cuts to the heart of something very important to New Zealanders: fairness.

Fairness is a core feature of New Zealand. It is heavily ingrained in our DNA. I believe it stems from our history, a country built on equality, free from the old class addled system of Great Britain.

We have a social contract in New Zealand. It works like this: if you need help because of something unexpected: an accident, a loss, or if misfortune befalls you, you will be supported.

But once you’re back on your own feet, we expect you to pull your weight once again and contribute back to society.

The Government’s role is to ensure that this transition happens – through up-skilling, education and a nudge behind those not meeting their side of the contract.

One of the first instances of this social contract was put into practice by three people, Arnold Nordmeyer, Gervan McMillan and Andrew McRae Davidson. They were the local church minister, GP and school principal who had the foresight to establish a small healthcare fund for workers on the Wairaki Dam.

It was tough, depression-era labour: building a dam by hand with picks and shovels, yet the workers would pay into the fund each week out of their meagre incomes, and in return they would get free health care and medicine.

McMillan and Nordmeyer went on to become MPs in the Labour Government, and their Wairaki healthcare scheme later developed into our universal health care.

It was the beginnings for of that social contract: That people could end up in hardship through no fault of their own, and in those cases we have a responsibility to provide a decent standard of living.

But it’s never been about all take and no give.

The other side of the contract is that everyone has a responsibility to contribute to their community. You didn’t get social security if you could work. If you couldn’t work, your community looked after you.