WHAT WORKER PAYS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 206, 1 September 1938, Page 14

WHAT WORKER PAYS

SHILLING IN POUND: "SOMEBODY ELSE, THE REST" IILUMIMATIMO B£ITTX3fCE. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, thi« day. "The worker pays a shilling and eomehody else pay* tiie rent" was an illuminating sentence used by Mr. Xash, Minister of Finance, in reference to the Social Security Bill when he gave the House of Representatives & brief survey of the financial bn*'m of the echeme. He declared thsrt the Opposition Leader had tMed a cruel phrao when he raid everyone would be taxe:l 2/6 in the £. Mr. Hamilton: You told us the shilling would provide half the cost of the echeme. "The worker pay* the shilling and somebody else pays the rest which is necessary to give the worker and the farmer the service* provided in this bill," replied the Minister. ' Mr. A. C. A. Sexton (Independent, Franklin): And the worker and the farmer will pay* toward* that as well. Mr. Nash answered the last point by referring to the large yield from income tax, which men of small means did not pay because of exemptions, while in regard to. another large taxation item, Customs, there were no duties on foodstuffs, which farmed a large portion of the workers' expenditure. .

Mr. Sexton: What about heavy company taxation T'■ * The worker pay* hie share in increased 'prices. Mr. Nash Went on to state that the Leader of the Opposition would be right in saying the average tax was. 2/ in the £ and that the 'rest came from ordinary revenue, not out of the workers' pocket. ' . ' ■ ; Mr. C. A. Wliklmon (National, Egmont): Who pay* the other , shilling? Mr. Naeh: The hon. gentleman pays quite, a lot of it. (Laughter.) Mr. Sexton pemkted wjth hie point regarding the company tax and the Minister countered with the suggestion that no worker holds nhare* in companies, nor, he continued, Aid worker* or small farmer* par land ta*, which produced about a million annually. It was estimated that the social security tax would produce eight millions on a shilling in the pound basis, and the Opposition Leader had declared that be would abolish the wage tax if returned. That meant raising thfe sum from another «ource or refraining from spending eight millions. Would the Opposition, he demanded, undertake if returned that they would abolish the wage tax? * Mr. W. j. Broadfoot (National, Waitomo): Wa are not on the defence, but you are. Mr. Hamilton: What the country wants to know is how you are going to finance it. Mr. Naeh reported that the Government's statements regarding finance wore vrry clear. Mr. Hamilton: You are allowing one and a half million* for the unemployed but you are spendinj four million* now. "It might be," replied Mr. Nash, "that we can organise thinge next year in some other way."