The Press FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1960. The Difference Between The Parties

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29269, 29 July 1960, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1960. The Difference Between The Parties

The political issues in New Zealand were reduced to simple terms by Mr Alex McKenzie in his presidential address to the National Party conference. If his examination of the differences between the National and Labour parties is enlightening to the public well and good. It may be more important that the National Party itself should clearly understand the great contribution that it can make to our national development at this stage. In recent years the line between the parties has seemed at times a little blurred, because both have had to change with the times—the National Party towards recognising that electors insist not only on fair shares but on demonstrably fair shares and the Labour Party towards understanding that State action has some limits. The National Party and its predecessors made substantial, and even revolutionary, improvements to the social security system. The Labour Party during its present term has apparently never been so happy as in trying to arrange deals with “ big business ” in oil, paper, cotton, aluminium, and steel.

Where, then, does the difference lie? It is partly in the reluctance of the Labour Party to recognise that neither party can really do much to alter the distribution of national income now that we have built into our social system such factors as a powerful industrial labour movement, the welfare State, and an extent of Government activity difficult to avoid in a

small and developing country. The difference can be seen more plainly, however, in the contrast between the belief of Mr McKenzie in Gladstone’s principle of leaving capital with the producers so that it may multiply and the principle in Mr Nordmeyer’s Budget of putting capital under Treasury control. The inherent advantage of the former is that private investment must pay or go out of business. As we know all too well, the State is under no such necessity. While the individual must relate his spending to his earning, the State first fixes its expenditure and then arranges its income accordingly. Another advantage of private enterprise is that it is under the supervision of the State. No-one supervises the day-to-day conduct of State business. Mr McKenzie set down his understanding of the basic differences between the parties under 10 headings, and the conference thought sufficiently highly of them to order a wider circulation. These 10 points should be a useful guide to the party in framing its policy, whether in office or in Opposition. They express the philosophy of expansion where Labour presents the philosophy of control with all its rigidity and frictions. To the extent that the Labour Party (or at least Mr Nordmeyer) perceives the case for expansion, that is a success for the National Party. It also offers a political advantage, since no-one can yet be sure how deep the new conviction of the Labour Party in breaking with its past may be.