Grapes move ‘act of piracy

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 7

Grapes move ‘act of piracy

PA Wellington The Government’s decision to delicense the trucking of grapes for three months has been called “an act of economic piracy” by Labour’s Shadow Minister of Transport, Mr R. W. Prebble. “The lucrative grape-cart-age business will be looted by cockies with trucks and will spell economic ruin to the licensed rural truck business that relies on the seasonal peak to survive,” said Mr Prebble. The Government, he said, had given no notice to truck companies of the move. The companies had been allowed to buy capital equipment for grape haulage. The move would also give farmers with cheap Rural Bank finance an unfair advantage over truckers, who had to get finance on the open loan market. “If the National Government wants to delicense the road industry it should be done in an open and fair

manner across the board,” said Mr Prebble. “Just whipping the cream of the business off for your friends is not. free enterprise — that’s piracy.” The rural g trucking business was already facing huge economic problems, compounded by the April 1 increase in road-user charges of 20 per cent and the depreciation of the dollar, which was making imported equipment more expensive. The Minister of Trade and Industry (Mr Templeton) denied that the Government had removed controls on transporting grapes without warning. Warning was given in April last year, he said. Mr Templeton said the Government move was based on a recommendation from the Industries Development Commission. The Government announced last April that this recommendation had been approved, said Mr Templeton.