‘Selfish pursuits’ irk M.P.

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 1

‘Selfish pursuits’ irk M.P.

Wellington reporter

In a moderate speech to the Labour Party conference at Wellington yesterday, the Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr R. O. Douglas, criticised the “selfishness” of New Zealanders. The truth was that New Zealanders were largely responsible for their own troubles because of selfish pursuits of narrow inter* ests, Mr Douglas said. They tended to blame the other fellow, 0.P.E.C., the E.E.C., the multi-nat-ional, or “some other convenient bogey.” Some trade unions had

pushed up wages even when their industries were in dire straits, and there was no way of doing so except by setting higher prices or increasing unemployment, Mr Douglas said. Unions were only one group, he said. Government departments and S.ate servants had pushed for more bureaucracy, the news media had dwelt on trivia, and politicians had promised spending schemes New Zealand could hot afford, to get votes.

The National Government had fostered and prospered electorally from

this selfishness, and businessmen had received protection to go on charging higher prices for goods. Mr Douglas said that the only way to increase real wages was by increasing productivity. The Government’s headlong rush into a Think Big development was foreclosing New Zealand’s economic options. ' The financial rescue of Winstone’s with $l5 million of Government money was precipitated by the Government’s Think Big policy, he said. The Winstone project was opposed by the forest research section of the Forest Service,

and by other departments, but was pushed through by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), Mr Douglas said.

The same Think Big policy would provide only a few jobs in proportion to investment, continue to concentrate power and money in the hands of big business, rely almost entirely on foreign capital, technology, and marketing, and huge taxpayer subsidies for power and timber.

A Labour Government would provide jobs at a cost of $50,000 instead of the Government’s $1 million; use New Zealand’s

raw materials, skills, and capital; remove the adversary relationship between manufacturers, farmers, unions, and the Government; replace bureaucratic managers with inventive people; and eliminate overmanning and artificial demarcation lines between unions. These were “bad work habits,” he said. Mr Douglas warned against expectations of an economic miracle by Labour. “There is no magic, overnight cure for New Zealand’s present economic plight,” he said. “Policies will have to be implemented in strict order of priority.”