Keynote Address: Social Justice Week 1997

I am pleased to be here not just to talk about the question of what happens to poor people under the new welfare legislation, but also because you have asked me to speak as part of your Social Justice Week. It is very important that you have Social Justice Week and that so many people are so interested in participating. As I will say in more detail later, it is urgent that we get beyond the debate over welfare at the same time as we pay careful attention to the implementation of the new welfare legislation. Our real effort has to be, in the broadest sense, about social justice.

So the fact that you have situated this conversation this morning as the beginning point of your Social Justice Week is very important, and I am doubly pleased to be here on that account.