Global view taken of Socred’s rise

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 5

Global view taken of Socred’s rise

Social Credits rise in popularity was part of a world-wide growth of ‘'centre" politics, said the league's deputy leader, and member for East Coast Bays. Mr G. T. Knapp, in Christchurch. Labour was dying, and would have to make a complete "about-face” in its policies. Mr Knapp told a Sydenham Social Credit branch meeting. He said there was one main reason why Social Credit was gaining in popularity in New Zealand, especially among the young. “We believe in giving people access to capital. You cannot give hand-outs: that does not stimulate growth or production," he said. In the 1930 s in Britain, he said, Labour’s method of distribution of wealth within the community brought it to prominence. It was a graduated tax system, but it had been taken too far now. “But if I had lived then. I

would have supported Labour." he said. The last good thing that Labour did was to give people access to low-cost capital, which was a “critical mechanism” of wealth distribution. But that method was now achieved by excessive taxation in New Zealand, said Mr Knapp. Social Credit would restore tax to a flat rate in the dollar. It was unfair to penalise higher earners, he said. "We will control our economic system so that it is possible for people to have access to capital,” he said. To those who would reply that it could not be done. Social Credit would say that the farming and low-income sectors had had that benefit “for ages.” Social Credit supporters had done an "amazing” job in Sydenham in the last election, said Mr Knapp, and there was "nothing surer" that the seat would be Social Credit's before long.