What the M.P.s were saying ‘Govt budgeting for more out of work’

Press, 27 July 1981, Page 2

What the M.P.s were saying ‘Govt budgeting for more out of work’

Parliamentary reporter

The Government is budgeting ,for more unemployment this year, not less, according to Mr -M. A. Connelly (Lab., Yaldhurst). He said there was no solution now or in the longer term .under the Governments 1 policies and the. Government was increasing the provision made in the Budget for the unemployment benefit from SIIBM to SI66M, an increase of S4BM or 40 per cent.

The Budget revealed no increase in police numbers, which was a matter of concern. said Mr Connelly, because New Zealand was experiencing record crime and violence.

For the second year running the number of sworn-in police had not increased. Also, the published estimates of expenditure showed that there were fewer sworn police on March 31 this year than a year ago, but that the crime rate had increased.

The staff ceiling of the police this year had • been reduced, not to what it had been last year, but to less than it had been two years ago. “This is happening under a

Government that made law and ’order an issue." said Mr Connelly. . “All this is happening at a time when thuggery and violence are beoming more vicious than ever before; when thugs are showing an increasing lack of respect for human life and a lack, of concern about the injuries they inflict) and are resorting to ‘brutality of the worst type." The Government had always wanted a Springbok tour, said Mr M. K. Moore (Lab., Papanui). That was why Cabinet Ministers who said they supported separate development were not told that they were wrong.merely that they were foolish.

“All the time the Government has organised its election strategy and its survival upon the basest and most evil instinct in people — racism." he said.

“Every time the Government has been faced with a problem it has looked to its electoral advantage. “Labour would have gone' to the Rugby Union and told it to put the tour off. and if it did not. then the visas would have gone."

The trade union movement could take a lot more initiative in helping to solve New Zealand’s chronic unemploy--ment problem, according to Mr M. F. Courtney (Ind.. Nelson). The Labourers’ Union could .start, by looking at its award, which was causing a lot of ! problems for the Labour Department and the P.E.P. scheme because there was only one rate of pay in the award. There was not a lesser rate for younger people, as in some awards. That was an anomaly and was causing difficulty and preventing younger people from taking up the P.E.P. projects, he said. The 1981 Budget had been disappointing because it had not come to grips with New Zealand's problems. The Budget offered few solutions at a time when confidence was at a low ebb. The Labour member for Christchurch Central'(Mr G. W. R. Palmer) said the 40 nations of the Commonwealth judged that New Zealand had not done enough to prevent the Springbok tour and that the Government had welshed on the Gleneagles Agreement.

The Government was isolated within the Commonwealth on the issue. It stood alone and it was wrong. “The Government is like a little boy who has been misbehaving.” said Mr Palmer. “He has been spoken to severely, and is now blubbering about it in public." Action by the other Commonwealth countries had been unanimous, he said, and that made New Zealand an international pariah.