ABSTRACT
New Zealand social work shares with other countries many of the challenges to identity and autonomy in a mixed welfare system. Social workers work in statutory child welfare services, public health services, youth justice and corrections and in a very broad range of services delivered by non-government organizations, many in partnership with state ministries. New Zealand is a former British colony and is in the Commonwealth. It has a Westminster-style government and has had coalition governments under a mixed-member proportional voting system since 1993. New Zealand is a small country experiencing growing ethnic diversity, especially in the North Island and the region of Auckland.
