GOING TO AUSTRALIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1943, Page 3

GOING TO AUSTRALIA

NEW ZEALAND OFFICIALS . TO EXPLAIN SOCIAL SECURITY METHODS. (By Telegraph-APress Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In response to a recent request from the Australian Government, the New Zealand Government is sending Mr. H. Digby Smith, chairman of the Social Security Commission, and Mr. A. O. von Keisenberg, Secretary of the Health Department, to Canberra, to explain methods of administation and working of the New Zealand Social Security Act.

The Australian Government wants this information because of the proposed Australian scheme, which was described in cablegrams received last week.

The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Parry) in making this announcement today, said Mr. Smith had a wide experience in dealing with monetary benefits and Mr. von Keisenberg in dealing with medical benefits. Mr. Smith, as first chairman of the commission, had also helped to build up the organisation of social security in New Zealand, and Mr. von Keisenberg had administered medical and hospital benefits since the inception of the scheme. The Australian Government contemplates a comprehensive social services scheme involving an expenditure of £60,000,000 in the next three years.

The principal items in the proposals were as follow: (1) Improved repatriation right, including pensions for servicewomen; (2) sustenance for servicemen between demobilisation and civilian re-employment and higher service pensions; (3) national health and medical services; (4) maternal and

child welfare services and pre-natal and post-natal payments to .mothers; and (5) unemployment benefits and a national housing plan.