Quick summing-up

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32665, 22 July 1971, Page 16

Quick summing-up

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 21.

The Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) in Parliament today summed up in four minutes the second reading debate of the Bank of New Zealand Bill which had extended over almost three weeks, in several sittings of the House.

The bill, which gives the bank power to restructure its shareholding, was attacked by Opposition speakers on the ground that under one clause the directors, with the authority of the Minister, could issue additional shares to outside interests. The capital is wholly owned by the Government.

In his reply, Mr Muldoon said the power had been in the act ever since the Labour Government had taken over the bank. Neither he nor his National Party predecessor had ever used it, and he had no intention of doing so. A division was taken on whether the bill should be read a second time, and this was won by the Government, 39-36.

Mr Muldoon described the debate as repetitive and futile. The initiative for the bill came from the directors and administrators of the bank, he said.

The last Opposition speaker in the debate, Sir Basil Arthur (Lab., Timaru), had challenged the Minister to say there was no intention of disposing of any part of the bank owned by the people of New Zealand.

“No speaker opposite has convinced us there’s any need for this bill,” he said. “For this reason we question particularly the clause that says the directors may increase the share capital from time to time.”