When I was growing up in New Zealand in the 1970s, we were in the middle of a global economic recession. The impact this had on my family was softened by the confidence that we had a right to healthcare, education and a job paying decent wages. Admittedly, my family would not have articulated this using the language of rights; instead, we held an unconscious expectation that the state would play an important role in supporting key aspects of our lives. These assumptions were gendered: my father expected his job as a Post Office telephone engineer would also support his wife and four children, with his union negotiating wages and conditions to this end, while my mother received the universal Family Benefit which recognised the costs and value of bringing up children and the societal impact of poverty among the young. Low interest government loans encouraged home ownership but we lived in a state housing area, where ‘fair rent’ provisions ensured decent housing for all New Zealanders. When we were sick, we paid only a nominal fee to the local General Practitioner because the state subsidised private doctors. Emergency services at hospital were completely free. My siblings and I also attended the local state primary and secondary schools without charge and, when my brother entered university in the early 1980s, he paid minimal student union fees while the cost of his degree was funded by the state.

As New Zealand settles into the second decade of the 21st century, we are emerging from another significant recession, caused by the global financial crisis of 2008–09. But times have changed. The parents of a child growing up today are likely to find themselves in employment that is far less secure than it was 30 years ago, with part time and casual work common. Most negotiate their wages and conditions directly with their employers because the national wage arbitration system has been abandoned. Low and middle income parents may receive tax credits to relieve the cost of bringing up children but the universal Family Benefit was abolished in 1991, when benefit levels were cut and never resurrected. The unemployed are subject to new disciplinary mechanisms aiming to get them into work, despite poor economic conditions reducing job supply.