A joint attack

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 2

A joint attack

Parliamentary reporter

Canterbury members have led the campaign in Parliament to get answers from two Cabinet Ministers on the Fitzgerald land loan affair.

The member for Christchurch Central (Mr G. W. R. Palmer) and the member for Timaru (Sir Basil Arthur) say the commission of inquiry into the loan does not make sub judice answers to questions asked in the House.

They quote a ruling from the Speaker (Sir Richard Harrison) on July 9, which exempts commissions of inquiry from protection from questions asked in the House. The Speaker said that commissions of inquiry were not part of the judiciary courts of record, both of which were privileged in relation to subject matter for trial.

Hire-purchase “Truth in lending” was the only purpose of a bill introduced by the member for Lyttelton (Mrs Ann Hercus), and given a first reading, but the Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) refused to support it, Mr Palmer said. The Hire-Purchase Amendment Bill would make compulsory the disclosure of interest rates charged in hirepurchase contracts.

“Those interest rates can be as high as 40 per cent. It is very easy for a salesman to sweet-talk a customer into a chattel, transaction for a household appliance, and gloss over the amount of money being paid for interest,” Mr Palmer said. “Money has a price, like any other commodity. That price should be disclosed in a simple, dear fashion.” The provisions for disclosure in the bill were already contained in the principal act, and had been since 1971, Mr Palmer said. But they had not been brought into force. The bill would bring them into force. Defending the Minister of Justice, the member for Marlborough (Mr D. L. Kidd) said that the HirePurchase Amendment Bill would frustrate uniformity of control. The proposed credit contracts bill was the result of nine years of study of extremely complicated law, and would bring order in when it was introduced. The disclosure of true rates of interest would do little to stop bad purchases. Take-overs

Mrs Hercus said that if the rate of mergers and takeovers in the 1979-80 year continued at the same level, all New Zealand would be owned by 10 companies within 7| years. In the last financial year 121 ; mergers and take-over proposals had been notified; 112 had been given the consent of the Examiner of Commercial Praactices, and only one had been examined by the Commerce Commission.

“This is a remarkable and even frightening increase in the rate of mergers and takeovers, and one of the causes of increasing proportions of home-grown inflation,” Mrs' Hercus said.

Forest Service On Government proposals to transfer the Forest Service’s Commercial Division to private enterprise control, Mrs Hercus said she was not satisfied that the Government would retain a 100 per cent shareholding, or that it would remain responsible to Parliament.

The State owned about 60 per cent of trees in New Zealand that would be millable in the late 1980 s and 19905. The resource had been built up with taxpayers’ money.

The division should become a corporation with revamped commercial management, and accountable to Parliament, not be flogged off to private enterprise by ‘‘Right-wing doctrinaire bods,” she said.

Land petition Sir Basil Arthur told the House that the “no recommendation” status given the control by Allan Wallbank and 15,526 others against the sale of 380 ha of Coromandel to a Saudi Arabian prince was the result of a Government majority on the select committee considering the petition. He defended Allan Wallbank- as petitioner. Although he would contest the Gisborne seat for Labour at the next General Election he did not instigate the petition under pressure from the Labour Party. He was the obvious choice of a reacting public, in the absence, of a sympathetic National option.

Flower staff The member for the'.West Coast (Mr T. K. Burke), objected to the transfer of flow-er-growers from the. jurisdiction of the Industrial Relations Act to the Agricultural Workers’ Act, under a bill introduced late last week. Although the reason given was the improvement of working conditions, the change had not'come out of an agreement between employers and employees. The bill meant industrial matters would go before a tribunal on agricultural matters, instead of an industrial relations tribunal. Power cables

The member for Yaldhurst (Mr M. A. Connelly) sought clarification on compensation payable to householders through whose properties underground cables would be laid. Would any power board be compelled to use the provisions of the Public Works Act? Would owners have any recourse if a cable malfunctioned?

He also asked the Minister of Works (Mr W. L. Young) to ask the National Roads Board to provide cycling facilities on the Sockbum overhead bridge. The Minister said he would refer the matter to the District Roads Council for recommendation. Price control

The member for Avon (Mrs Mary Batchelor) said the Government should impose firm price controls and a flexible subsidy system for basic items.

Mrs Batchelor called for a basic living wage and tax incentives.