Budget ‘For The Rich’

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 18

Budget ‘For The Rich’

GV Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON. July 14. The intention of the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) in the Budget had apparently been to establish a welfare society for the rich, Mr M. A. Connelly (Lab., Wigrant) said in Parliament today during the Budget debate.

It was the most one-sided economic document he had seen presented in the House, he said. The switch from direct to indirect taxation was placing a burden on the lower-income groups and those on fixed incomes. The consequences of the payroll tax would be a further increase in the cost of living. The Government had given no assurance that the Budget would be able to slow the increase in prices and wages. The Minister of Housing (Mr Rae) said the assistance given to farmers in the Budget would not only combat present problems but would encourage greater production in the long term. Mr C. C. A. McLachlan (Nat., Ashburton) hit back at criticism of the new payroll tax made by Sir James Doig, chairman of U.E.B. Indus- : tries. In 1967, he said, in the economic interests of the country, the Arbitration Court brought down a nil wage order, and there was terrific pressure on the Government to interfere. “The Government refused, but Sir James Doig was the one who broke the line,” said Mr McLachlan, referring to the increase made by U.E.B. to its employees’ wages after the nil order. “If Sir James Doig wants to squeal now he should think of the system he set into being when he stepped I out of line then.” Mrs T. W. M. TirikateneSullivan (Lab., Southern Maori) said the Budget was the most reactionary New Zealand had known. The Minister of Finance had prided himself that the maximum rates of taxation were the

lowest in the world, but that was nothing to boast about, she said. The taxation burden had been placed on the lower classes. There was a sharpening of tensions in the lowerincome groups because of the help being given to the rich. She asked Mr Muldoon to make a stipulation that the payroll tax would not be passed on to the consumer. The Under-Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Dick) said those misguided farmers in the Waikato who had threatened to withhold milk supplies as a protest should sell their farms and let someone else “have a go.” By getting out of farming altogether they would be doing a service to the country and the dairying industry, he said. i The group had been criticised by responsible leaders |in the industry.