‘P.M. not competent’

Press, 20 January 1984, Page 3

‘P.M. not competent’

PA Wellington The Labour Member of Parliament for Otahuhu, Mr R. J. Tizard, said yesterday that comments in the Prime Minister’s Orewa speech laid Sir Robert open to charges of incompetence. Mr Tizard, Minister of Finance in 1974-75, said that if Sir Robert did not know what investment funds Labour provided in 1975 he was incompetent and should never have had the job. In his speech, the Prime Minister said that in 1975 Labour “did not have the prospects for the future in the new industries that we see today, and were simply borrowing for consumption and heading New Zealand towards bankruptcy.” Mr Tizard said the 1975 Budget showed who was telling the truth. The Development Finance Corporation received $25 million, $9l million went to the Rural Bank and $l5 million to the Housing Corporation. The Offshore Mining Company received $64 million for early construction phases of the Maui Gas platform, and the Natural Gas Corporation received $6.5 million. “Table two on page 41 shows that the total amount to be borrowed for Government purposes was $497 million at home and abroad against the total works programme of $583 million exclusive of roading,” said Mr Tizard. “For anyone to claim as was done at Orewa that in 1975 the Labour Government ‘was simply borrowing for consumption and heading New Zealand towards bankruptcy’ lays the claimant wide open to charges of incompetence, possible senility or gross deception according to the excuses offered.”