F.O.L. Seeks Planning

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31771, 30 August 1968, Page 1

F.O.L. Seeks Planning

(From Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON, August 29.

The Federation of Labour had supported the conference because it believed there should be co-ordinated planning, Mr L. A. Hadley said. It had favoured a permanent consultative body being set up, and it hoped that from the conference there would be a move towards that.

New Zealand could not be

satisfied merely doing the things that had been done in the past, and increased primary production in itself was not an acceptable answer. Secondary industry must be encouraged, particularly where it was for import substitution and export. Full employment was an essential factor in any progress, Mr Hadley said. Unemployment from any cause of any duration robbed a man of productive effort and put him as a charge on the productive effort of others, but it also affected his morale. Mr Hadley said many New Zealanders would prefer a sustainable growth to a more

rapid rate that might produce benefits for the few at the expense of the majority. Some advanced countries were concerned about economic growth in which a proportion of the community did not share.

It would be completely wrong to create a position in which workers were put out of employment before they were given training or retraining to fit them to a new skill in other employment, he said. Manufacturers’ Case

The president of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation (Mr R. G. Speirs) said the future development of industry would be more capital-intensive than labourintensive and would require new investment at a higher rate.

The growth of exports by manufacturers was passing through an explosive phase—doubling this year. Given a system of longterm incentives designed to match the need for exports, manufactured products had the capacity for another real export explosion in the 19705, be said.

Many firms had shown they could sell on world markets: others must be encouraged to do so. Because of the planning and investment required to export, it was essential that the final and other incentives be on a long-term basis.

The stop-go cycles that had disturbed the economy in the past must be minimised, Mr Speirs said.