Royal Commission established to undertake a nationwide inquiry designed to set social policy goals and to recommend what needs to be done to make a more fair and just society. Five volumes in report covering social policy, demographics, biculturalism and Treaty of Waitangi, woman and social policy, labour market policy, income maintenance, benefits and taxation and a range of social perspectives - housing, education, environment, transport, recreation, people with disabilities, elderly, and youth, etc.

The purpose of this summary report is to briefly explain the conclusions and recommendations contained in the April (1988) Report of New Zealand's Royal Commission on Social Policy. Features of contemporary society which should govern social policy over the next decade are discussed. Four points stand out. First, improvements must be made in race relations in New Zealand, particularly in the position of the Maori and the role of women. Second, economic and social policies must be designed to provide extensive paid and unpaid employment opportunities. Third, major change is required in the way that the state and its institutions carry out their responsiblities. Fourth, economic and social policy should be designed jointly, and their impacts monitored and assessed on a regular basis. An executive summary is followed by discussion of the Commission's tasks, social policy and the Treaty of Waitangi, women's issues, the interrelationship of economic and social policy, the role of the state, work, income maintenance and taxation, funding and provision of social services, the justice system, equality of the races, Pacific Island Peoples' perspectives, and perspectives on the elderly, young, and disabled. (RH)