Panic attacks: the New Right, media, and welfare reform in New Zealand, 1987-1998

Abstract

Following the dramatic escalation of beneficiary numbers after the Fourth Labour Government's economic reforms, an ideological and political climate was created for representatives of the New Right to embark on a moral campaign against beneficiaries. This campaign focused on the moral failings of the poor, marginalising structural and political-economic causes for the growth of welfare dependency. During the 1990s, New Right welfare reforms aimed to remoralise beneficiaries to the disciplines of paid work in the name of creating the 'decent society'. The two major welfare reforms of the 1990s form the basis of this study, firstly the National Government's benefit cuts in 1990-1 and secondly, the work for the dole scheme and 'Code of Social Responsibility' proposed by the Coalition Government in 1997-8. This thesis examines the New Right's campaign through the media to mobilise public support for punitive welfare reform, applying and testing the utility of moral panic theory. This thesis argues that the New Right, during both periods of reform, consciously attempted to create moral panic through the media. Unemployed and domestic purposes beneficiaries were targeted as moral failures vis-à-vis the neoliberal demand of 'personal responsibility' in the free market economy. Permeating mainstream media coverage with discursive claims about the problems of bludging, benefit crime, welfare dependency and the moral pathologies of the poor, the New Right aimed to drive a wedge between beneficiaries and taxpayers, thereby legitimising punitive measures of sanction and control. In reaction to these attacks, oppositional advocacy groups led a counterattack that, at times, diverted media attention from the New Right campaign. Although the attempts to create panic were aided by a subservient media, this campaign failed to gain public support due to the influence of a significant counterattack, combined with New Zealanders' attachment to an ethical belief in the 'social responsibility' of the state to provide for the poor. Moral panic proved to be a valuable model, providing an organisational structure to understanding the New Right's campaign. This thesis shows, however, that studies of elitedriven moral panic must include an analysis of counterattacks to understand how panics and the problem-construction of elites can be contested. Although the model requires modification, moral panic remains a flexible heuristic tool for historians to examine the relationship of media to issues of power, morality and discourse.