Mr Lange will open ‘the books’ today

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 8

Mr Lange will open ‘the books’ today

PA Wellington The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, first brought up the subject of “the books” on the first day of his election campaign. Today he will open them. In his televised opening address at the Christchurh Town Hall he told the nation, “The books, like the Budget, may well have been cooked, or locked away. “The state of public finances is bound to be worse than anything the National Party has disclosed.

“Our balance of payments, overseas reserves,

and Budget deficit are likely to be far more serious than we have been told.”

During the campaign and since, National and Labour have been at odds about the true state of the economy. That is what Mr Lange says he will reveal this afternoon, at a press conference at the Beehive. He said earlier this week that the information had been prepared by the Treasury, the Reserve Bank, and the Government’s economic advisers.

The Leader of the Opposition, Sir Robert Muldoon, claims the past weeks have

been spent “vetting and doctoring” the books. He told reporters that if there was any difference between the Treasury reports he had seen and those released by the Government today when it “opened the books”, he would want an explanation. “If they have changed their view in just a few days, Treasury have something to answer for,” he said.

Sir Robert circulated an extract of a Budget speech prepared for him by the Treasury. It was not delivered because of the snap

election and change of Government.

He also quoted from a Treasury “economic update” report, dated July 11, which he said had been prepared every election year since the 19605. “If there is anything in what is released that differs from this, I shall release this or the appropriate parts of it,” he said. “I doubt there will be.”

The update was little different from the Budget text, dated June 8, Sir Robert said.

He described the extracts as reasonably optimistic.