The central question for public policy in the 1990s is whether the state should retain its near-monopoly of welfare provision or whether it should allow a greater role for private and voluntary methods of delivering services and redistributing income.

This book records the combined proceedings of two conferences held in November 1987: the first in Wellington, the second in Sydney. The papers by Michael James, David Band,  Charles Murray, David Willetts and Alan Woodfield were given at both conferences.

James Cox, Susan St John and Susie Kerr presented papers at the Wellington conference, where Hugh High commentated at the first session and Claudia Scou at the
second. In Sydney, where the commentators were Martin Krygier and James Cox, papers were given by John Logan and Peter Swan.

Charles Murray and David Willetts were panel members at both conferences. Edited versions of the two panel discussions are reproduced separately at the end of volume.
I am grateful to all the participants for their cooperation in expediting this record of the conference proceedings. Above all, I wish to thank Garth Nix for his assistance — indeed his dogged persistence — in reducing the multifarious conference materials to a coherent and readable form.

Michael James