Socred ‘would aim to control interest rates’

Press, 17 November 1981, Page 12

Socred ‘would aim to control interest rates’

Social Credit’s first aim is to control interest rates, says the Social Credit candidate for Sydenham, Mr Richard Bach.

He told about 20 people at a public meeting in the Addington School hall that about 1500 businesses in Sydenham were barely surviving. “What a difference there would be in the Sydenham electorate if the first $lO,OOO was tax-free and if interest rates were controlled, as they were before 1968, to the 1500 businesses in Sydenham.” he said.

Controlled interest rates would also mean middleaged tradesmen could continue house-building, as few young people could afford the high deposit and interest rates on houses. . "All this could be controlled by reverting to the position before 1968, when the Reserve Bank held interest, rates down,” he said.

. “Only the pressure of overseas interests through the International Monetary Fund has caused this to happen.” independent economic forecasts indicated that inflation would risp above 20 per cent after the General Election. The present rate of 15 per cent was artificially low. Social Credit would institute loans at 3 .per cent for home-buyers anti loans at 1

per cent for essential works, such as drainage. This would cut unemployment and create jobs for young people: who had moved to the North Island or overseas, Mr Bach said.

He was concerned about the number of young people who had drifted away from Sydenham. “Judging by the difference in the size of electoral rolls, since last election 2000 to 3000 young people have left Sydenham to go elsewhere. “We are the only Western country to lose its young folk. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom may be static, but their young folk stay there because they dan afford to,” he said. In Sydenham there was now, to some extent, a lack of sense of direction, of focus, and of community. Economic circumstances had caused a decline in the size of families. Mr Bach said Social Credit believed that a single, stable income should be sufficient for owning a home and raising a family. ; A Social Credit government would offer an increased rebate for a dependent - wife or husband, subsidies on some food and clothing, and low-interest loans and inflation-proofed savings to home buyers. Each family would have

access to a cheap and efficient health service, in contrast to the present situation where some school pupils were affected by malnutrition, Mr Bach said. S “It is our intention to foster family and marriage knowledge through steppedup community education and school programmes. “There needs to be a closer relationship between the home and school, itself a great focus for community interest,” he said. Social Credit alone was free from the vested interest of multi-nationals and the unions.