WAGE EARNERS WORSE OFF ON HIGHER PAY, MR SULLIVAN TELLS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 12, 15 July 1949, Page 5

WAGE EARNERS WORSE OFF ON HIGHER PAY , MR SULLIVAN TELLS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

(Special to Beacon) Wellington, July 14. “The people are just about sick and tired of the Minister of Finance’s game of put and take. He puts it into the pay envelope and takes it out in the higher costs of all the goods the people have to consume. Every other country, including Canada and Australia, in the post-war period has been able to reduce taxation and to reduce it considerably, but we have pot been able to do that in. this country,” declared Mr W. Sullivan (National, Bay of registering, a protest against the high cost of living during his speech in the Imprest Bill debate in the House of Representatives.

Mr Sullivan recalled that, once •upon a time the Minister and his colleagues were going to reduce the cost of living by reducing taxation. That was what they said in 1935, but what was the answer to that? In the past ten years the Government had increased taxation by £B4 million, and in the last seven years the taxation per head of population had increased by £27. “Sometimes I am amazed that the Minister .of Finance had not got indigestion from the enormous amount that, he consumes,” added Mr Sullivan. “It is an astonishing amount that he takes every year in taxation.”

Cost Of Socialism Holding that the socialist management of the country and that socialistic experiments had cost New Zealand dearly, Mr Sullivan cited losses being made by the State.coal mines, the increased millions being lost on the railways annually, losses on tourist hotels, on chartered shipping, on housing “and every mortal thing that this Government has meddled and muddled with.” Those losses fell on the taxpayers, and losses of Revenue by the State meant increased taxes and ultimately meant increased cost of living.

How could any one say the worker was better off in those

Taxation fell on industry, and industries had to be able to conduct their concerns in a better balanced way than a State Department did or they must go out of business; so if Government was going to impose an undue load on those industries they must in turn increase the costs of commodities to the people. “That is what has ha'ppened since our taxation has increased to the extent that it has,” he said. “The net result is that the price goes up to the consumer, and our prices are going up today; that is, the price of everything manufactured in this country, and those prices are going to rise still further in the next two or three months because of recent impositions.” Incentive Gone - Taxation had been imposed upon primary production until it had written out the incentive to produce. As taxation came out of the pocket of the worker he in turn must have a higher .wage or a higher salary because his cost had gone up. “So we go over the vicious circle, again, and we push up the costs of his goods, which means that he demands another increase in wages or salary. When are we to attempt to get down to stable money in New Zealand? V/hen are we to have some sort of stability? That is the question we want the Government to answer for we do not want it to

go on with this system until it wrecks the whole show.”

In the Speech from the Throne the House was informed that increases were to be given to the beneficiaries of the State. Of course that had to be done because the cost of living had increased to such a point that those people could not make two ends meet.

Increased Costs Citing cases of increased costs, Mr Sullivan said that in 1938 the average skilled tradesman was getting 3s an hour, and today he got 4s or 4s Id. In 1938 a bedroom suite cost him about £2O, so he would ■have to work for 133 hours at 3s an hour to pay for it. If he wanted a similar 'suite today he had to pay £33 and had to work 165 hours at 4s an hour to pay for it. He had to work for 32 more.hours to get the same article.

conditions? Costs had overtaken him, and that was why we had so much industrial trouble and so much difficulty in industry today. In 1935 the Minister of Finance said he was going to give the worker a home for £6OO. What had he to say about it today? In 1938 the skilled tradesman had to work for 200 weeks at £6 a week for a good home costing £I2OO, but the same workman, earning £8 a week today had to work for 300 weeks to get the same home costing £2400 —he had to work for 100 more weeks to get the same article. It was sheer nonsense to say that the worker was better off.

Goods And Money “In 1938 our aggregate private income was £185,000,000 and the value of goods available then was about £137,000,000; so that we had money over goods then to the extent of £48,000,000. Today we find that we have money over goods to the tune of £159,000,000. No wonder we are going wrong. The Minister o£ Finance knows it, as well as or better than most of us, but he does nothing about it. i

“He goes on pumping this poison into the money system of our country, bringing about a further, pressure upon the Government through the organisations that the workers have and through other organisations for higher and higher wages, more and more salary, higher and higher costs and more difficulties. “Some day we have got to have a sensible money policy and we have to attempt to attain a stable economic level.”