LABOUR'S POLICY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 172, 23 July 1941, Page 10

LABOUR'S POLICY

ATTACK AND DEFENCE MR. BODKIN SEES "CALAMITY" (By Telegraph—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Resuming the Budget debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, Mr. Coleman (Government, Gisborne) said he could not see how it was possible to form a national Government when the two sections in the House were so much opposed in principle. What the Opposition was aiming at was not a seat in the War Cabinet but seats in the Cabinet which formulated the country's domestic policy. The Leader of the Opposition should advise members of his party to drop party politics. Mr. Coleman referred to meetings of the National party held during the last few months, and made special reference to addresses by Mr. Doidge (National, Tauranga) and Mr. Broadfoot (National, Waitomo). People had been brought 1o book for saying far less than he alleged had been said by a member of Parliament at one of those meetings. The Labour party had refrained from party politics for some considerable time. It was elected on a definite policy, and the National party was elected to oppose it. The Government was determined to administer the Social Security Act, but the Opposition had said they would not administer it. I .limit of Taxation Members of the Government had commended the Minister of Financefor bringing down a Budget that did not propose additional taxation, said Mr. Bodkin (National, Central Otago). They had forgotten that the Minister of Health, Mr. Nordmeyer, speaking with Ministerial responsibility, had informed the country that the Labour Government had reached the extreme limit of taxation. Mr. Nash was the greatest tax gatherer the country had known, and had taken more out of wage-earners' pockets than any other Minister of Finance. The Minister of Health had made his statement on the eve of the Waitemata by-election, when he must have known Cabinet's decision. Mr. Bodkin said he would not be surprised if the Government had to borrow £30,000,000 this year. He referred to the magnitude of payments and commitments set out in the Budget, commenting that they were staggering. While the Minister of Finance endeavoured to make the country believe that everything was going well, the Government was squandering everything upon which it could lay its hands. Its policy was one of spend, spend, spend, and let the future take care of itself. When the soldiers came back it would be a most difficult period, when our produce could only return a fraction of what we were receiving to-day. The resources of the Reserve Bank would be exhausted— The Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash: For six years you have preached the same calamity. Government's Enterprise "Just recently there was a change over from butter to cheese, and we were told that the change could not be made unless accommodation was provided in the next two months to take another SOO men in the cheese factories in various parts of New Zealand," said the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Armstrong. "I got in touch with the Housing and Public Works Departments and some building contractors, and was told the job could be done, and bv the time the season opened the building would be erected." Opposition Members: Private enterprise again. Mr. Armstrong: Private enterprise would not have done it unless there had been the enterprise of the Government.