Euphoria tempered by economic warning

Press, 8 September 1984, Page 3

Euphoria tempered by economic warning

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

Mr Anderton warned the happy delegates that their Government. had inherited an extraordinarily difficult economic situation, - ’ The Government would need all the support it could get to guide New Zealand out of its deep economic trouble.

But the Labour Party also had a responsibility to keep reminding the Government that efforts needed to be directed to a better way of life for all New Zealanders. He criticised some of the economic advice the Government had been getting, specially from the Treasury, for being too impersonal. “We need to demand that those who would give advice on economic matters be reminded continually that it is the lives of people with which such advice is

concerned,” Mr Anderton said. People were not com-, puter digits or economic . components that could be moved around on . some grand economic chessboard with physical and emotional impunity. The Labour Government, he said, would have to measure economic policy against six. objectives. • Full employment. ® Economic growth. • Fairness and social justice. 9 Maximum possible stability in prices. • More democratic approach to economic management. • Greater control by New Zealanders over their own economy. A way out of the economic crisis had to start with economic expansion, but

that was not an end in itself, Mr Anderton said. It was but a means to a wide range of social objectives.