P.M. and Meat Bd in harmony again

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34156, 18 May 1976, Page 2

P.M. and Meat Bd in harmony again

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Mav 17.

The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and the chairman of the Meat Board (Mr Charles Hilgendorf) are back in harmony on the pricesmoothing mechanism for beef. At the week-end, Mr Hilgendorf was critical of an implication in the Govern-

ment announcement of the scheme which suggested that the Goverment would set trigger price levels at which the scheme would start to work.

Tonight at a press conference. Mr Muldoon said that he and Mr Hilgendorf were in agreement that it would be set by the Meat Export Prices Committee. This would be done after consultation between the committee and the Minister of Agriculture.

He made it clear at the conference that the public would be relied on by the Government to effectively police the freeze on professional fees, particularly those of doctors and dentists. He believed that the reaction to the economic package announced on Friday was predictable. “It was not on our list of criteria that we should try to please everyone.” Mr Muldoon estimated that the cost-of-living index rise in the first half of the year would be about 8 to 8.5 per cent.

He would not say how much of that rise would be accounted for by increased Government charges and the lifting of subsidies. “I have made no calculations for that he said. The Prime Minister made it clear there would be no automatic cost-of-living adjustment to wages at January 1 of next year. The previous provisions for cost-of-living rises every six months would not apply at the end

of the year because of the wage freeze. He said that the Government was not kite-flying when it referred to the possibility of bringing wage-fixing procedures for the Public Service under the same system as that for the private sector.

It would start immediately discussing with interested parties new wage-fixing procedures. There was almost agreement in principle with the Federation of Labour that there should be a return to conditions which applied before 1968 and he believed that because of this it should not be too difficult to settle details.

Members of . the new wage order tribunal would not be known for some time, he said.