Govt. Reluctant To Discuss Airline

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30529, 26 August 1964, Page 1

Govt. Reluctant To Discuss Airline

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 25. In spite of an objection from the Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) that a discussion on S.P.A.N.Z. was out of order because a judicial decision affecting the future of the company was pend* ing, Parliament tonight debated an alleged promise given by Mr Holyoake, as former Leader of the Opposition, to Ansett Trans* port Industries, and the future of the trust fund set up for the shares formerly held by Ansett.

Mr J. Mathison (Opp., Avon) asked whether the trust fund might be reversed if the airline began making a profit, with the help of the Government.

At the outset, ministers sought to have the topic suppressed. Mr Mathison said: “There is a £70,000 debt owing to the New Zealand Government with the Ansett withdrawal. It would appear that the Ansett plan to give its shares to SPA N.Z. staff will cost nearly £lO,OOO in Australian gift duty and a trust fund may be set up for employees. . Mr Shand: Point of order. The financial affairs and the capacity of this airline to perform a service will come under discussion. But S.P.A.N.Z. has, at present, an application before the Air Services Licensing Authority. A judicial decision is pending. I would contend that this body is a court in fact, if not a court in name.

Mr H. L. J. May (Opp., Porirua): You’re trifling with the House. Mr W. W. Freer (Opp., Mount Albert): You’re frightened of criticism. The Government is frightened. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nordmeyer) said the question before the House was that of the Government’s attitude towards S.P.A.N.Z. “The application before the Air Services Licensing Authority is not in debate,” he said. "It is not proper for this House to be prevented from discussing a matter of great public importance merely because an application happens to be before a quasi-judicial authority.” Objections Fail The Attorney-General (Mr Hanan) submitted that “the whole matter of 'S.P.A.N.Z." had a bearing on the application. A judicial decision was pending and would be subject to appeal to a body presided over by a Supreme Court judge.

The Speaker quashed the objections. “We have complete freedom here within our own Standing Orders,” he declared. “In the popular acceptance of the phrase ‘judicial decision,’ we are going to get one from the Licensing Authority. But I rule that discussion here now is proper.”

He ruled that, in his view, it was not a judicial decision. Mr Mathison asked what encouragement Mr Holyoake, when Leader of the Opposition, had given Mr Ansett He quoted Mr Ansett as saying that he had been encouraged by the National Leader of the Opposition to believe a privately-owned airline might be allowed into New Zealand. “Did the alleged encouragement lead a Cabinet minister to invest in the airline?” Mr Mathison asked. Fund’s Future If the company, with Government help, went on to start making a profit, would the trust fund be repudiated and Mr Ansett take it over. “Surely a trust fund can be reversed when it suits the promoters.” Mr Mathison said it appeared the Ansett organisation was not prepared to pay gift duty to give the employees shares at £78,000, but now proposed to set up the trust fund. The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine): I have no way of knowing, neither has the member for Avon, what Ansett intends to do with the trust. I have no means of knowing what it involves. Mr McAlpine said two representatives of the Ansett firm had told him they had no further interest in S.P.A.N.Z. The three Australian directors had resigned and stated to him, and publicly, that they had given the shares held by Ansett to the staff of S.P.A.N.Z. They said Ansett would give £lO,OOO in hard cash to S.P.A.N.Z. to carry the company through to a profitability period about November.

Anyone could buy shares in S.P.A.N.Z. if they wished. The Ansett representatives came with the object of asking for further Government aid or of handing in the resignations of the directors. The assets of S.P.A.N.Z. included all the physical assets of the airline. It had

a debt to the Government on June 30 of £68,000. “I understand it has debts to other outside organisations, . but I do not know. It is not my business,” said Mr McAlpine. “Shares Paid ?” Dr. A. M. Finlay (Opp., Waitakere) asked whether the Government proposed to allow Ansett to withdraw from a company which already owed £BO,OOO. He suggested the shares being given to employees by Ansett were not fully paid up. Mr Ansett, he said, was “a flamboyant enterpreneur.” He was satisfied this gesture was not for nothing. A suggestion had been made that the Government’s' claims on the company were not going to be pressed. "I want an assurance from the Government that this is not true,” Dr. Finlay said. “Furthermore, will Ansett really be withdrawing from the service? In negotiations now under way a DC6B aircraft is Involved. The only one available is in Australia and belongs to Ansett. Its inclusion would surely bring Ansett right back into the picture,” Mr Shand said he could not understand the Opposition trying to smear the Prime Minister, ... “but it’s obvious they want to throw a bit of mud somewhere. “Any future discussion with Mr Ansett will be conducted in the same manner as before—open, fair and above board.” Talks In 1960 Mr Shand said he was with Mr Holyoake in 1960 when two Ansett representatives came to see him.

“They were told by the now Prime Minister that New Zealand intended to stay in the international airline business and that we were not prepared to sell out to Australian interests or anyone else.

“They then asked how Mr Ansett could get into New Zealand and I mentioned that S.P.A.N.Z. was Struggling and that they might be interested in helping the young coinpany. “I said that, as the Government, we would not interfere with the Air Services Licensing Authority.”

Mr Shand said he knew some of the promoters of S.P.A.N.Z. as friends, as did other members. There has been a “snide” reference to a Cabinet Minister investing in the airline. “It was invested purely out of friendship." Mr N. V. Douglas (Opp., Auckland Central): It was not snide. The; Prime Minister: Muck raking. Mr Shand said suggestions that Mr Ansett was trying to get out of his obligations “’ere just nonsense. The Ansett representatives came to see the Prime Minister last week to tell him what Mr Ansett was going to up.

Mr Douglas: To tell him—the Prime Minister—what he was going to do. Mr A. S. Faulkner (Opp., Roskill) said that if asking for this information was not Parliamentary government, then he did sot know the meaning of the word. ■ The Government had failed to answer what the public demanded to know, be said.