Minister says measures will be very fair

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33671, 22 October 1974, Page 1

Minister says measures will be very fair

(A’eto Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 21. The Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (Mr Tizard) says the economic measures which will be announced on Wednesday are very fair. The Government made its final decisions on them today.

Mr Tizard said after the Cabinet meeting: “I don’t think I am going to go down in history as ‘Frosty Fingers Nordmeyer’; not for this lot anyway.”

Mr Tizard also announced that New Zealand had applied for a loan of about $BO million from the International Monetary Fund’s pool for oil finance.

Details of the new economic measures were completed by the policies and priorities committee of Cabinet this afternoon, and the only discussion still to be held is on the form of the speech on Wednesday by the Prime Minister (Mr Rowling). The decision has also been made on whether they will be introduced by regulation, statute, or “polite persuasion.”

The Government would indicate “certain” measures it intended to take at the meeting on Wednesday, Mr Tizard said. This would be attended by representatives of most sections of the community.

Reactiou sought "We will be seeking a reasonably well-informed discussion of the proposals we put forward,” Mr Tizard said. “We want reaction from the people who have knowledge of their own groups.” The Government would put forward some possibilities and alternatives open to it. “We want to ask each for their reaction with others present,” he said. Parliament would debate the measures on Wednesday afternoon, and the Govern-

ment would foreshadow any legislation likely to be necessary, said Mr Tizard. This would enable it to make Wednesday the effective date of legislation. Sales tax Mr Tizard said sales-tax measures would not be introduced on Wednesday. Such a step could not be taken when firms were open for business. Although the Government had received representations from a number of organisations, including Federated Farmers, stock and station agents, and manufacturers, no-one had been given any advance warning of the measures, or been consulted. Mr Tizard said that Mr A. D. Dick, the director of the Sheep and Cattlemen’s Association, had not been invited to the meeting, because farmers’ groups had “pretty solid” representation, and space prevented the inviting of groups from within groups. Mr Tizard said discussions were being held with the International Monetary Fund on New Zealand’s application for an sBom loan from the oil-finance pool. The fund had established the pool, which will lend on a quota basis, to help countries meet the higher import costs for fuel.

New Zealand was looking for about sBom, possibly more, he said. A loan from the fund, at low interest rates, would be probably

more favourable to New Zealand than a loan from any of the Middle East countries.