Call For Planning

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31177, 29 September 1966, Page 3

Call For Planning

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 28.

One national economic and development council consisting of Government, primary and secondary industry and employers’ and workers’ organisations, should be established, the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) told the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association last night.

There was a great need for over-all planning of New Zealand’s economy to increase production and exports with the resources and labour available.

“In New Zealand we are able to estimate very accurately our income from exports, which this year should be about £405 million,” said Mr Skinner. “We know what we must spend on imports of equipment and raw materials. We know that we have a work force of just over a million. We can aim at a realistic rate of growth and can plan accordingly.” The council would plan future development for five years, perhaps longer. Industrial expansion, primary and secondary, would be complementary and in accord with manpower and financial resources to enable a continuous growth, which would eliminate the present uncertainty.

The council should study industrial relations. It should work in close liaison with the Monetary and Economic Council. “It should not be beyond the ingenuity of man to have an economy that at least is reasonably stable and continuous. Self-criticism in a constructive sense is good. Selfcondemnation in a destructive way is bad from every point of view.” United Nations’ reports showed New Zealand’s gross national product was ahead of Australia and Britain. An 1.L.0. report comparing rates of growth of 52 countries showed only Japan, West Germany and Italy had a better record than New Zealand. New Zealand was well ahead of the Commonwealth countries.

“We should be proud of our work force and proud of our achievements. The trade union movement in New Zealand has passed th') goal of recognition and reached the era of responsibility. We are an important part of today’s complex and changing world. “If our past is to be protected and our future secured, we must plan and work for it,” he said. “New Zealand must plan to live within its means, not planning beyond our resources.” Today, however, in spite of ever-increasing export incomes and increasing production from manufacturers and labour, Government spending annually exceeded export income. “We can no longer afford to measure our success by the losses we sustain.

“We have one boat J which off-handedly proclaims it will lose £BOO,OOO this year. But what do we do about it? Run

off to the Reserve Bank to try to get cheap money and go further into debt?” Answering questions, Mr Skipper denied a suggestion that there had been more industrial trouble in New Zealand over the last 10 years than at any other time. He said the F.O.L. believed its members had the right at a.y time to withhold labour just as, in any democratic country, an employer had the right to dismiss a worker.

He insisted that New Zea, land had a better system of conciliation and arbitration than any other country, but this was “a two-way road.”

“Employers-- cannot dodge their responsibilities any more than we can. Any employer who'thinks he can do some injustice to his workers and then scream ‘the I.C. and A. Act’ is wrong. Conciliation and arbitration were never intended to make a servile people.”