New Zealand Children in the 1990s: Beneficiaries of New Right Economic Policy? Nicola Atwool Community and Family Studies University of Otago New Zealand This paper questions the extent to which New Zealand children have benefited from New Right economic policies and argues that the invisibility of children, the role of public concern about children and the social construction of childhood are factors which have facilitated implementation of these changes. Attention is drawn to the ways in which the personal and the political spheres intersect in children’s lives. Rather than focusing on either the micro level of intervention in the lives of individual children or the macro level of societal change it is argued that the dualism itself must be transcended in order to move forward from the current position. Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The position of New Zealand children in the 1990s New Zealand claims credit as the birth place of the welfare state (Kelsey, 1997, p. 1) and until the 1980s we prided ourselves on the adequate network of social services available. Provision of free healthcare and educational services, afford- able low-rental housing, and monetary benefits for the unemployed, sole parents, the elderly, chronically ill or dis- abled maintained the perception of New Zealand as an egalitarian society allowing individual advancement through hard work. From 1984, however, New Zealand embarked on a radical structural adjustment, the stated aim being to address the budget deficit and increasing overseas debt. Politicians on both the left and the right embraced the philosophy of economic fundamentalism based on neo-liberal economic theory that has become known as the ‘New Right’. Policies were introduced to promote competition within ‘the free market’. Financial controls were replaced by market deregula- tion and currency devaluation. A Goods and Services tax was introduced and this, in conjunction with changes in taxation rates and the introduction of tax on some benefits reduced income levels. State housing provisions were restructured and required to return a profit, resulting in rental increases to match market rentals. The Employment Contracts Act removed many of the mechanisms that had protected workers and income CCC 0951–0605/99/050380–14$17.50 Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. CHILDREN & SOCIETY VOLUME 13 (1999) pp. 380–393 Correspondence to: Nicola Atwool, Community and Family Studies, University of Otago, Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.