Development Priorities

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32253, 23 March 1970, Page 18

Development Priorities

“The greatest limiting factor in the economy is j probably the availabilty , of labour, and although i this problem has been ' with us on and off for J many years, it has probably never been more i acute than at present,”;’ the Minister of Finance ’ (Mr Muldoon) said at a i Chartered Institute of 1 Secretaries seminar in ] Christchurch on Saturday.

“Looking ahead through the next decade, it is likely that even at best the availability of labour will continue to be a problem, said Mr Muldoon “While immigration schemes and other measures can improve the situation in the short to medium term, immigrants themselves require

the expenditure of resources, and in certain circumstances there is no net gain from im- , migration. “Two courses remain open.; One is the slackening of demand, and various Government policies are available to achieve this. The other is the diversion of labour into those areas where it gets the best results.” Mr Muldoon said that with Government spending roughly one-third of the gross national product, there was some ability to withhold resources from low-priority projects, and indeed to restrain spending in absolute terms.

“But when this has been done for several years, as has been the case in the immediate past, the value of this weapon is diminished. Even very low priority projects must come to the head of the queue at some time. “We cannot say, for example, as many people would, that a hospital is more important than a new television studio, and a university arts buildings more important than either.” It was clear, however, that not only the Government, but all those who were associated with decisions of this type, must make do with less

than they would like in some areas, in order that the vital necessaries of production were : not skimped, thus creating more wealth for everyone,” Mr Muldoon said. Mr Muldoon said that fortunately, even in the! highly controversial field of! education, the National 1

Development Conference had laid down some targets which fitted into the total pattern of development. As might have been expected, the greatest absolute increase was in the university field, where working expenditure was expected to increase from 819.2 m in 1967-68 to S69m in 1978-79. “In technical institutes, however, the increase is from S4m in 1967-68 to 515.1 m in 1978-79.

“In capital expenditure, the difference is quite spectacular. Certainly university building has reached a very high level at present, the 1967-68 figure being $13.8m, rising to Sl7m a year in 1972-73 and remaining at that level until 1978-79. Technical institutes, on the other hand, drew only 81.6 m for capital expenditure in 1967-68, while in 1978-79 the figure is a remarkable 59.2 m,” he said.