Targeting criminals

Alan Duff writes (July 18) that we should cut off the benefit to those who attack dairies, liquor stores and commit other crime. “It’s time the Government came up with another way of handling them.” he states. How do you target these criminals? Surely if we know who they are wouldn’t they be prosecuted and in jail?

If we cut the welfare to people at the bottom of society what do we think they will do to survive — get jobs or commit crime? My guess is the latter.

The idea also comes with all sorts of issues. For instance what constitutes a crime that cuts your benefit off? Unfortunately for Alan “criminals” is not a defined line. It’s a series of unfortunate accidents and situations. Yes at one end of the spectrum we have the seriously bad but how does his policy handle those at the other end? What if they have families?

My guess is that knowing you’re going to be cast adrift from any societal support when you’re released means the affiliation to gangs, who will supposedly “look after them” would soar.

Does welfarism create problems? Conversely does having no welfare system create problems?

I’d agree with Alan Duff that what we are doing is not working. This is where we need some visionary thinking in our Government, not just the populism we are getting. So let’s look at what does work and propose doing things differently. I’d suggest we should look to Gareth Morgan’s ideas for a fresh perspective.

Andrew Dallas.