Call to control Govt spending

Press, 26 August 1982, Page 20

Call to control Govt spending

PA Dunedin New Zealand industry needs consistent Government policy rather than handouts to meet the demands of restructuring, according to the president of the Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr G. W. T. Christie. He told the New Zealand Institute of Public Administration conference in Dunedin that there was a need to control the growth of Government spending, investigate the efficiency of the servicing sector, and develop more appropriate taxation policies. Control of Government spending should be built into the system, said Mr Christie. The idea of bulk allocation of funds to departments and decentralising control seemed to have a lot of merit. The Government had to make some hard decisions about spending priorities, said Mr Christie. Primary and secondary producers received subsidies to produce or export, but much of t'his money was to compensate for service sector inefficiencies, he said. The Manufacturers’ Federation had been "extremely

disappointed" with the Government’s refusal to improve depreciation provisions in this year’s Budget. ! ‘lf we do not want industry to drift across the Tasman, we must have taxation ’policies that recognise the distorting effects of inflation and which encourage firms to modernise plant and invest for expansion,” he said. The Australian Government had recently introduced accelerated depreciation provisions as part of a move to stimulate manufacturing in general. “Under C.E.R., firms in Australia and New Zealand will sit down and do their sums. Factors such as depreciation or investment allowances could make the difference as to whether the firm is located here or in Australia,” said Mr Christie. Public and private sectors should be seen “partially as partners and sometimes competitors but not antagonists, because New Zealand cannot afford the wastage from that sort of conflict,” he said. But there was good reason to be concerned about the level of State activity and control of the New Zealand economy '