The last chapter found that neoliberal social security reforms and discourses around individual responsibility and welfare dependency strengthened institutionalised distinctions between the deserving and undeserving and were likely behind a hardening of attitudes towards the unemployed. The focus here is on the ‘universal’ programmes of healthcare, education and – in the New Zealand context – superannuation for the elderly. These have not only traditionally framed citizens as human beings of equal moral worth but have disproportionately benefited the middle classes. Chapter Two noted evidence suggesting such universalism may garner wider levels of support than targeted programmes. Universalism always represented more of an ideal than a reality in New Zealand but was nonetheless important to the national psyche (Boston and St John, 1999; Vowles and Aimer, 1993).

By the 1980s, however, New Zealand's worsening economic position saw the cost of universal programmes become increasingly politicised. The public were concerned about diminishing government subsidies for private General Practitioners (GPs), tertiary student living costs and the sustainability of ‘New Zealand welfare's sacred cow’, the universal, tax-funded state pension introduced by National in 1976 (Paske and Ray, 1981a, p 16; St John, 1999a; Cheyne et al, 2008). This chapter explores whether attempts to introduce neoliberal marketisation, targeting and/or privatisation into these three policy areas changed public views of their rights as citizens. Many writers to the Royal Commission on Social Policy (RCSP, 1988a) already felt the principle of universalism was under threat in the late 1980s. Chapter Three, however, highlighted that feminist, Māori and other critiques of universalism in healthcare and education may have made the public more receptive to neoliberal arguments about ‘choice’ and ‘diversity’ which appeared to overlap with a desire for greater particularity in the meeting human needs.

Nonetheless, the speed and extent of New Zealand's quasi-market health reforms from 1991 provoked a significant public reaction and important policy reversals, particularly after 1996. U-turns were less evident in education, although there was certainly public disquiet when compulsory education reforms aiming to improve community involvement led to experiments with bulk funding and zoning that increased inequalities in the resourcing and outcomes of schools and their students (Nash and Harker, 2005).