Labour ‘believes in intervention’

Press, 26 September 1984, Page 3

Labour ‘believes in intervention’

PA Wellington The Labour Government believes in marketplace regulation and intervention, says the Under-Secretary of Agriculture, Mr Butcher. Mr Butcher, the member of Parliament for Hastings, told the annual conference of the Fruitgrowers’ Federation in Wellington that markets tended to make the rich and powerful richer and more powerful. “The present Government is one that believes in intervention in marketplaces to restore equality,” he said. “Similarly, the Govern.ment is one that believes in

regulation of the marketplace. “Regulations are useful to reduce the power of the too powerful, and to enhance the freedom of the less powerful.”

Mr Butcher said marketplaces worked according to the rule that the user paid and the buyer must beware. However, he said that “anomalous results” could be produced if intervention and regulation were not designed to follow other rules. An example of such an anomaly was the windfall profit to bankers arising from the National Government’s interest-rate regulations.

“(The controls) also considerably reduced interest bills for large companies with big overdrafts and made black-market money dearer for the small borrower and the powerless,” he said.

Mr Butcher said the Apple and Pear Board represented a successful means of regulation.

“In the best part of 40 years, this board has operated in the marketplace with what can only be described as phenomenal success in recent years, designed to achieve collectively what could not be achieved by individual growers,” he said.