“A BUDGET OF, STEALTH”

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22464, 27 July 1938, Page 5

“A BUDGET OF, STEALTH”

MR POLSON ON PUBLIC DEBT PRE-ELECTION PROMISES RECALLED [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, July 26. “The Budget is subtle to the point of furtiveness, and fabulous to the point of fantasy,” said Mr W. J. Poison (National, Stratford), during the financial debate in the House of Representatives to-night. It was a Budget, he added, built not on principles, but on political bribery and nothing else. It was an attempt to catch the attention of the unthinking, “We are told in the Budget thqt there has been a reduction in the Public Debt as a result of the administration of the Minister for Finance,” said Mr Poison. “That debt reduction is nothing more than another juggle. It is simply, a juggle to justify the statement of the Prime Minister that the debt has been reduced. There is a gentleman named McArthur; but I don’t think he can teach the Minister for Finance anything in regard to juggling. . . J "I would like the Munster to say to whom the State Advances’ stock has been sold. There seems little doubt that this mysterious sale of stock was to a State department, and if this is so the transaction is merely a transfer, and cannot bo described as a reduction of debt. The tact is that the debt is to be increased this year by a further £14,263,000, to be borrowed internally. From w.hom is it to be borrowed? Private enterprise is already being bled, and cannot find the money. Is it to be obtained by a compulsory loan, a levy on capital, or a further instalment of credit inflation?” The Tax Reference was made by Mr Poison to Labour's unfulfilled pr e-election promises, and statements by present Ministers of the Crown in criticism of the sales tax when in Opposition. The Prime Minister had denied having stated that he would take off the sales The Prime Minister: I did not deny that. I denied having said I was going to do it immediately. After quoting statements by Mr Savage. Mr Poison said that no other inference could be taken from those than that it was intended to abolish the sales tax. Statements in opposition to the sales tax had been made by members of the present Government before it came into office. The Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry): That is the difference.

“The traders of this country realise how they have been misled, and will demand a reckoning.” said Mr Poison. “Important pledges given by the Prime Minister have not been fulfilled.” Members of the Opposition, added Mr Poison, had stated that a reduction in taxation was one way of substantially reducing costs. A private individual could spend to bettor advantage than the Government, and that was the fundamental difference between the Opposition and the Labour Government. “This Budgfct is a Budget of stealth.” Mr Poison continued. “The Prime Minister has failed to keep every important pledge he made before he reached that office; - ’