Socred leader busy

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 4

Socred leader busy

PA Marton The Social Credit leader (Mr B. C. Beetham) yesterday advocated worker shareholdings in large companies and corporations as a way of reducing industrial trouble. Speaking to a small group at Ohingaiti. north of Hunterville, he said there was no “overnight solution” to industrial trouble. "Any political- party that stood up in front of you and said there was, would be deceiving you,” he said. But he said a possible solution could involve converting workers into shareholders “so they have a direct stake in extracting from that industry the best possible deal for that industry.” Social Credit would like to see the same system implemented in public corporations such as Air New’ Zealand and the Railways Department. Mr Beetham said a trust fund for workers should be set up from a Reserve Bank low-interest overdraft to pay

for their initial shareholding. Any profits in the first few years would then be used to pay off the loan, he said. In Hastings on Tuesday evening, Mr Beetham told an enthusiastic crowd that he considered the election battle for Hastings a three-way fight. Hastings had been listed as a Social Credit possible before the resignation of the candidate and deputy league leader, Mr J. Dwyer. Mr Beetham told • a whistling,, clapping, footstamping crowd of about 600 in Hastings’ Municipal Theatre that the replacement candidate. Mr G. A. M. Clover, had rebuilt the support the league had before Mr Dwyer’s resignation. In his address, Mr Beetham concentrated an attack on the Government’s growth strategy and detailed how he thought his tax proposal, “Proposition 28,” could help pay off the internal deficit. The tax package, he said, would cost $1.5 billion to implement but would earn $2

billion. The $5OO million left over would help close the deficit which, he said, would reach $2.5 billion this year. Mr Beetham said the growth strategy had not been designed by the. Government at all. It had been foisted on National by “privileged corporations.” Instead of the growth strategy, Mr Beethem advocated that the country shpould do “what it is best equipped to do” in farming, forestry, tourism, and industries which added to primary production. In Feilding, Mr Beetham told about 200 freezing workers the economy could not yet stand a shorter working week. But, he said, that "in the finish” new technology had to be accepted and the shorter working week concept would have to be considered along with productivity. The technology had to be introduced in such a way that the work force would not be affected, he said.