P.M: Damp squib

Press, 7 June 1978, Page 1

P.M: Damp squib

The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) has described Labour’s alternative economic policy as “the biggest damp squib” in years, the Press Association reports. “Most of it is a rehash of things that have already been stated,” he said. Labour’s taxation policy meant nothing until it gave details, Mr Muldoon said at a news conference.

Labour could not reduce tax more than the present Government had done because of the total amount of revenue involved, he said. Labour’s foreign exchange surcharge proposal amounted to a “one-sided devaluation.” New Zealand would get the disadvantages of devaluation without the advantages. Farmers would not get the advantages of devaluation in the form of higher

prices for their produce. “It is an anti-farmer proposal, but that is typical of the Labour Party,” Mr Muldoon said. The National Party had never considered a straight tax on overseas exchange, he said. One of the biggest disadvantages would be the effect on the consumers price index. Mr Muldoon said the rest of Labour’s economic policy was a “mishmash of platitudes.”