BUDGET DEBATE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 267, 22 August 1945, Page 5

BUDGET DEBATE

LEADER OF OPPOSITION CRITICAL WAR EXPENDITURE AND TAXATION. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 21.. When the House of Represent tatives met to-night two resolutions were carried and the Hon. W. Nash made a statement regarding the financial position which was on a par with his statement made yesterday.

Mr Holland said that after six years of war it was possible this year to begin the financial debate in a spirit of rejoicing, but peace would present many complex, exacting problems associated with the change-over to peace. He had absolute confidence that in New Zealand we would accomplish this changeover as successfully and as rapidly as any country provided the people Jiad good leadership. The most important task by far was the demobilisation and rehabilitation of the 100,000 men and women from the Armed Services, together with several thousands of, people who had been manpowered away from their normal jobs. The public expected that the pledges given to servicemen would be honoured fully. , Mr Holland said the war had been fought not- 1o make permanent our temporary loss of freedom or system of State socialism, of rationing, coupons, licences and permits; it had been fought and won that the'people might be free to Jive their own lives in their own way, to choose their own employers or employees as the case might be. to work hard and to become independent and self-reliant. The people wanted freedom from fear of having jo lean on the Government and from fear of misfortune and old age. Mr Holland said that when the original Budget was presented the end of the war was obviously near and the people were entitled to expect the Government’s plans to increase employment, but the Budget contained no such proposal. Never did a Government have such an opportunity to slash into wartime taxation as the people were expecting it to do. As an instance of the experiences ef men returning from the war to face prohibitively high costs, Mr Holland quoted the case of a man who wanted to build his owii home and had been quoted £2200 for a five-roomed house of 1100 square feet. Paths, fences, and fences and section were extra. The Government must accept responsibility for these high costs. Mr Holland said .that no Government had had an opportunity such as had been afforded the present Government this year. It had had time to find out how unpopular its Budget was, and then it had had a whole week in which to revise the Budget, but nothing had been done to reduce taxation. Any Government worth its salt would also have gone right through all the wartime controls to see how many could be dispensed with. Partiality in Broadcasting. Mr Holland made an emphatic protest against the partiality of the Government, particularly the Prime Minister, regarding the use of radio in broadcasting Parliament. The Budget, he said, had been broadcast over seven stations and his own speech over only one. A similar thing happened in 1943. When he protested on that occasion the Prime Minister said if he (Mr Holland) had raised the matter before he spoke equal facilities would have been offered to the Leader of the Opposition. This year, said Mr Holland, lie approached the Prime Minister beforehand -but was rfefuSed. There seemed to he no rules regarding the granting of radio facilities to members other than rafferty rules. He thought that control of the broadcasting of Parliament should be taken out of the Government’s hands and given to Mr Speaker. Exchanges between Mr Holland and Mr Fraser regarding the matter led to Mr Fraser assuring the Leader of the Opposition that for next year’s Budget debate he would have the same number of radio stations as the Minister of Finance. “The Prime Minister may claim the same privilege,’’ added Mr Fraser. 1 ' Healthy Finances. The Minister of Supply (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) said no other country could show healthier finances after six years of war than were revealed by New Zealand’s Budget. Mr Holland’s whole argument had been for a reduction of taxation, yet the Leader of the' Opposition knew that nearly every item of the additional expenditure of £'34,000,000 in the War Expenses Account would necessarily go into the pockets of servicemen. These items included £18,000,000 for the payment of gratuities and £5,000,000 for deferred pay, while the amounts for rehabilitation and pay and allowances had also increased, yet the Leader of the Opposition devoted scarcely a minute to these important matters and failed to indicate which of these items he would like eliminated from the Budget provision. Mr Sullivan said the cost of the war up to the end ofthe last financial year was £507,000,000, but the amount owing was only £230,000,000 or less than half of the expenditure. That was a magnificent record, and the people of the country would get the benefit of it as they would not have heavy repayment costs to meet overseas. Only £18,900,000 had been borrowed outside New Zealand. The Government could feel pride and gratification at the way in which the wav finances had been managed. It also gratifying to note that every year during the rvav revenue had exceeded expenses to the extent that the financial position of the country throughout the Avar had been better than the people' had imagined possible.