Labour’s priority: full employment

Press, 30 October 1981, Page 5

Labour’s priority: full employment

Parliamentary reporter Full employment takes priority in the Labour Party's manifesto. The other key issues are the cost of living, taxation, and regional development. The Party's policies are.Unemployment Guaranteed jobs or training for all young people for five years after schooling ends, 'abolition of the dole.

and its replacement by job training. Assistance with jobhunting or useful work. A job-search allowance paid for three months and counselling for all unemployed. A youth Employment Skills programme (Y.E.S.). and the Challenge work scheme to provide jobs in local areas. A "job bank" to match people with jobs, and work experience classes at secondary schools. The Labour Party says it can provide 160.000 jobs in the next five years in the

following sectors: Timber, 9600 jobs in the North Island and 2400 in the South: housing, 12,700, 4300; railways electrification, 300, 200; manufacturing, 15,600, 4400; fishing, 2500, 2000; agriculture and food processing, 15,000, 10,000; heavy industry and energy projects. 3000, 2000; tourists, 4200. 2800; small business. 24.000, 8000: and the balance from expansion of the service sector. Its employment programme is estimated to cost $l4O million. Cost of living Return of subsidies on basic foods, "break-even" controls on Government charges. introduction of tough anti-monopoly policies, lowering of interest rates, special low-interest loans in "priority” sectors, probable suspension of the floating exchange rate to help control inflation, and a "moderated" growth of money supply. Taxation Introduction of tax-free earnings: S6O a week for individuals. $72 for singleincome couples with no dependent children. $l3O for each family with one dependent child. $lO for each extra dependent child: reduced tax on overtime: tax relief for shift workers, lower taxes on small to medium sized businesses; tax concessions to companies taking on more permanent staff: a review of all sales tax; abolition of sales tax on records.

Housing Loans to 80 per cent of the value of a home, and repayments not exceeding one fifth of income in the payback period; commitments to renovate existing houses to count as loan deposits on those properties: enough funds for the Housing Corporation to return it to its "historic" social role of providing low-income housing. Health Greater local administration of health services, "adequate funding and manpower"; more health education and preventive measures: upgraded care for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill; main emphasis on community and preventive medicine and the role of the general practitioner. Law and order More transport, communications equipment, and manpower for the police: expansion of the community constable scheme (one new community police officer a month in the first three year term). Industrial relations “Updated and improved" industrial legislation; shared benefits of new technology: redundancy legislation to “protect workers' rights"; a "modern and effective" mediation and arbitration system. Agriculture $2OOO million investment in agriculture in the next 10 years to produce 25.000 new

jobs on farms and 25.000 jobs in agricultural processing: an "aggressive" search for overseas markets, but commitment to processing raw primary produce in New Zealand: more land for horticulture through the farm ballot scheme; better assistance for irrigation and water supply schemes to "boost farm production, and import earnings”: a stop to speculation in farm land, and assurances to settle "genuine" farmers on the land. Education More support to parents and "all early childhood education workers." to give preschool children the best possible start; abolition of the School Certificate external examination; increased tertiary bursary, indexed to the cost of living. Social services Improved access to buildings for the disabled; reduced effect on benefits of income to encourage beneficiaries to become partly self-support-ing; a pledge not to interfere with the existing superannuation scheme: a promise to repeal existing legislation which takes superannuation from beneficiaries overseas for more than 13 weeks. Small business A lower rate of tax (25 per cent) on the first $15,000 of retained earnings; emphasis in the Development Finance Corporation to assistance to smaller enterprises; concessional loans to small com-

panies and negotiation between trading banks and the Government to give small businesses a "fair share" of loan and overdraft facilities. Government contracts and buying designed to patronise small businesses. Regional development A 50 per cent- cut in rail freight charges from the South Island to the North; a 150 per cent tax rebate on transport costs for approved exporters; regional development bonds to help small businesses; help to small craft industries in country towns: classification of the whole of the South Island as a zone eligible for regional development assistance: Government purchase of land to settle young farmers and horticulturists. International affairs Dismissal of the South African Consul-General; exclusion of nuclear-powered and nuclear-weaponed ships from New Zealand waters and promotion of a nuclearfree South Pacific: improved relations with Third World countries. Ethics in government All M.P.s required to declare their financial interests and Cabinet Ministers to divest themselves of any assets creating a conflict of interest with government responsibilities.

Open government

Reduced power of the Cabinet, and increased public participation in processes of government. legislation rewritten to be intelligible to the general public and having an expiry date (to prevent accumulation of out-of-date legislation in Statute Books); abolition of many statutory boards, commissions and authorities, and limited use of regulations; repeal of "repressive" legislation such as the National Development Act. and the S.I.S. Amendment Act "which allows politicians to order bugging and telephone tapping." The Labour Party believes extra funds needed to implement its manifesto (above estimated 1981-82 National Government expenditure) will be $4OO million, most of which is not expected to be drawn until 1983-84.

It plans to raise it by a "crack-down" on tax evasion, "closing some of the loopholes so successfully exploited by Queen Street farmers and large companies"; by using money now tagged for the National Party's "think big" projects; and from a 6 per cent surcharge on foreign exchange. By producing a growth rate of 4 per cent, a Labour government would earn $440 million a year, more than enough to pay for its development plans, the party says. More than $2OOO million would be earned in five years.

Major new social welfare schemes would have to await real economic growth.