‘Down But Not Out'

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 1

‘Down But Not Out '

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) MELBOURNE, Aug. 30.

New Zealand was down but not out, the president of the New Zealand Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) told the congress of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in Melbourne today. The country had been hurt and the working people mainly had been hit, he said, commenting on New Zealand’s economic situation. Mr Skinner said that unemployment in New Zealand was the highest for 32 years—about 6700 people. “I believe the New Zealand Government is firmly determined to create a permanent pool of unemployed,” he said. Mr Skinner attacked the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and New Zealand.

“The agreement is not worth the paper it is written on. Your politicians are much smarter than ours,” he said. Mr Skinner said that federation between Australia and New Zealand was not the answer to New Zealand’s economic problems. However, he urged the set-

ting up of a joint national shipping line by the Australian and New Zealand Governments.

New Zealand’s freight rates had increased four times in the last five years. It was costing more to ship butter to Japan than to London. The Australian and New Zealand union movement had to work together to build up

the standard of living in South-east Asia, so that these countries could buy Australian and New Zealand products. Mr Skinner said there was no doubt that Britain would go into the Common Market. New Zealand sent 44 per cent of its exports to Britain and had to find new markets elsewhere.