Better prices may not cure deficit

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33995, 8 November 1975, Page 3

Better prices may not cure deficit

X Z i’.A. Staj! Correspondent)

NAPIER, November 7. Even if Government predictions of a surge in overseas farm prices prove correct, New Zealand will still have an overseas account deficit too big to live with, according to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Muldoon).

He said yesterday that it was extremely difficult 1 to predict what wool ] prices would be at the : forthcoming main auc- : tions. * 3 Mr Muldoon told more “ than 300 people at a meeting ’ :in Napier: “We still need all government that can anagel jtl" economy, rather than one 1 J iwith Micawber-like policies ' ‘ of borrow and hope.” . ; —

Mr. Muldoon said that.i providing conditions of export were humane, there were no reasons why New Zea-1 land should not export live animals. Unless it did it, might miss out on trr ’e with Middle East countries. He believed freezing workers were beginning toj (realise that the export of live sheep would lead to more trade and as a result more: work for them.

Secret ballot Dealing with his party’s industrial policy, he said that National would have an: industry by industry secret! ballot to determine whether! workers wanted . -’m mem-! bership to remain compuls-l, ory. It was clear that in some: industries, compulsory unionism would remain and , equally clear that in other industries it would not. With some people the: compulsion to join a union “grated” because they preferred to join a union under their own steam. The Social Credit leader: [(Mr Bruce Beetham) todaychallenged the Minister of (Agriculture (Mr Moyle) to! ((give the debit as well as the credit side of his state-of-the-i economy predictions for the next eight months.

‘Worse, not better’ Mr Beetham, speaking in Wellington, said that Mr Moyle, by forecasting export earnings into the middle of next year, had given only part of the picture. “He should tell the people

jof this country \ hat is on the other side of the ledger—the debit side,” IMr Beetiiam said. Mr Moyle should give i forecasts for: — [The long-term effects of de- . valuation on the price of imports: :The amount of additional overseas exchange which will be needed ‘ r. eet rapidly increasing freight charges; The extra overseas exchange which would be needed to service the additional overseas borrowing which would be made by Labour if it were returned to office. i Mr Beetham said he hoped :Mr Moyle’s predictions were correct. “But I suspect that if one ‘ takes a balanced view of the ( situation, one can only con- ( elude that the situation is going to get worse, not better,” he said.