An evaluation of the Southland flood relief temporary employment programme

Abstract

The 1979 Budget statement reasserted the Government’s commitment to full employment as a policy objective but considered that inflation and the balance of payments limited the scope of monetary and fiscal measures to increase aggregate demand. It therefore proposed the use of structural and demand management policies supplemented by the positive and imaginative use of job creation programmes. The Budget Estimates indicated an expenditure of $20m on subsidies for private sector job creation in 1979/80 (this includes the Additional Jobs Programme, the Skill Promotion Programme, the First Jobs Programme and the Farm Employment Programme), and $97m on subsidies for public sector job creation. The latter consists of various Temporary Employment Programmes (TEP) which involve short term project oriented employment additional to the employing organization's normal work programmes. Despite the magnitude of the costs involved, there has been little formal evaluation of these job creation programmes. The Southland Flood Relief TEP has provided an opportunity to evaluate such a programme. In October 1978, severe flooding occurred in the lower reaches of the Clutha River in Otago, and the Aparima, Oreti and Mataura Rivers in Southland. Flood losses in Southland have been estimated at 26,000 and sheep and lambs, and damage or destruction of 1250 ha of crops, 850 beehives, 10,000 ha of pasture and 340 km of fencing. Total costs of the flood in Southland have been put at about $25 million (Bell 1978).