Cheaper goods called for

Press, 16 August 1985, Page 1

Cheaper goods called for

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington The Government and the Combined State Unions yesterday called for price cuts in view of the New Zealand dollar’s climb against overseas currencies.

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said anything imported should be cheaper. He cited sugar and fertiliser as examples. Importers had been making windfall profits and should now account to their faithful customers at home, he said.

Mr Lange did not believe

their statements that they were absorbing costs. “They always say that,” he told reporters.

The -chairman of the C.S.U., Mr Ron Burgess, made much the same point in an afternoon press statement.

Mr Burgess said importers had been very quick to leap in and recover the extra costs the July devaluation had placed on them, but prices were not being adjusted downwards now that the dollar had risen.

“One exception is petrol,”

Mr Burgess said. “Now that the price of petrol has fallen, we should see immediate cuts in transport charges and in the prices of all other goods because transport cost savings will affect everything.

“The time has come for the business sector to put its money where its mouth is. I am tired of hearing about calls for restraint from workers when we never see any example of restraint from the price-makers.

“There is a clear case for significant, across-the-board cuts,” Mr Burgess said.