Labour pledge on family incomes

Press, 12 May 1981, Page 1

Labour pledge on family incomes

PA Wellington The Labour Party is looking to introduce a special finance package to help one income families combat rising costs. Disclosing the party’s policy intention during a keynote speech on family policy at the election year party conference yesterday, its deputy leader (Mr Lange) said no woman would be forced to work rather than to discharge her commitment as a parent if she chose to do so. “This is the first time to my knowledge that any political party has made such a commitment,” Mr Lange said.

When interviewed later, he said details of the package would probably be released after the presentation in Parliament of the Budget by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon). Labour sources, however. said the scheme under examination virtually involved writing out of the tax system all wage earners with a family who were on a lower than average annual income. The present average wage in New Zealand is about $220 a week. These sources said the scheme Labour was. examining involved a combination of a minimum pre-tax wage plus special exemptions for husband, wife, and each child.

They said the fine detail of the package had not yet been settled, but that the general outline of the

scheme had been worked out.

Should the mother of the children begin working the tax exemptions would not be available to her, the sources said.

Mr Lange in his conference speech said the promise that no woman would be forced to work was not a limitation on the woman who made the choice, “Or the partner who may elect to assume her role while she does work.” He added: “It is a simple pledge that no more in New Zealand will both parents be obliged to work to keep their heads above water.” . Appearing on the conference platform as television cameras switched on to film the meeting in the Wellington Town Hall “live,” Mr Lange launched into a impassioned attack on Government policies. “Neglect of the family as the basis of our social organisation has had, and will have, grave consequences for the sort of New Zealand we will have,” he said.

“When changed social outlooks are coupled with the appalling economic stress faced by families, something has got to give. And it has. “In New Zealand we have about 400,000 two-par-ent families and about 48,000 one-parent families. “Those parents who commit themselves to the nurture of those children are our responsibility and our future and our • ipolicies will be directed to them,”

Mr Lange produced a carton of supermarket goods including a bottle of milk, a packet of butter, a loaf of bread, o.skg of flour and one letter. Five years ago they cost 90c', but today $2.61, he said. Labour would change the Housing Corporation rental structure, he said. “Everyone thinks that people in State houses are ripping off the system. It my electorate it-is the State houses that are ripping off people. “If you earn more than $l4O a week you pay 4c of every extra dollar to the corporation and your tax on top of that. It is a systeni which has not changed since 1974, although inflation has gone mad since then. Housing rental policy has taken advantage of inflation, and more. That has got to stop.” Unemployment had become critically destructive to the spirit of people who nurtured families. There was a destruction of the feeling of pride when a child, having got through the education system could not get a job and was immediately assigned to the dole queue. Mr Lange’s themes struck a strong chord with delegates. x

Mr E. H. Soper (Labour’s candidate for Invercargill) said he had been upset when told by a mother in Invercargill that she was preparing her children for the eventuality.’that they may not get work in 'their lifetime.

Further report, page 3