No Budget leak to exporters — Minister

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 5

No Budget leak to exporters — Minister

“A Wellngton The Government has made no secret of the consultations it has had with exporters over the shape and scope of its proposed system of export incentives, the Acting Prime Minister (M Taiboys) has said. He was reacting to assertions by the Labour member' of Parliament, Messrs R. O. Douglas and R- W. Prebble, that some businessmen had exploited deliberate Budget leaks. The Labour members asserted that insurance and nominee companies had been buying heavily into the shareholding of established export companies since the leaks six weeks ago. The Deputy Minister of Finance (Mr Templeton) denied allegations of a deliberate leak. Mr Talboys said the papers that the Labour members quoted from did not represent the final decisions of the Government “which can only be revealed in the Budget.”

Mr Lalboys said public notice was given as long ago as the 1977 Budget of the Government’s intention to develop a new scheme and the 1978 Budget recorded the fact that consultations had begun. “During the last few months more than 75 different organisations large and small involved in the export of goods and services have been consulted,” Mr Taiboys said.

“If the Opposition continues to insist that the process of consultations amounts to a Budget leak then it can only be concluded that a Labour Government would never consult industry about export incentive proposals, or anything else affecting the fiscal relationship between industry and Government.

“Neither, presumably, would a Labour Government consult with the farming industry before making alterations to any one of the many schemes under which that industry receives Government financial support,” he said. No responsible Govern-

ment would ever make new arrangements of the type under contemplation without ensuring, by the traditional method of consultation, that its proposals were workable, Mr Taiboys said. “The innocence and naivety displayed by Messrs Prebble and Douglas in assuming that a major revision of the export incentive scheme could b£ accomplished without detailed consultation with exporters simply shows how unfitted either of them is to be part of a Government.

“The pieces of paper which have been quoted from by the Opposition were instruments of the consultative process. They do not represent the final decisions of the Government which can only be, and will only be, revealed in the Budget,” Mr Talboys said.

The Manufacturers’ Federation and members of that organisation who had been consulted understood that and had said so, Mr Taiboys said.