‘Black day’ for the poor

Press, 30 September 1986, Page 6

‘Black day’ for the poor

The introduction of goods and services tax tomorrow will be a “black day” for low-income people in New Zealand and will increase the gap between rich and poor, says the director of community services for Presbyterian Support Services, Mr Robert Consedine.

GST would benefit only those on high incomes, as the Government was redistributing wealth in favour of the rich, said Mr Consedine, at the first of a series of lectures on how Government policy was affecting New Zealand society. The lecture

was given at the W.E.A. Centre in Christchurch last evening. “While the Government has been successful in other areas of social change — health and foreign affairs — it has failed in the economy because it has become the Government of the rich,” said Mr Consedine. “A variety of safety nets which traditionally protected the poor and those without jobs are quietly being dismantled in the naive belief that the trickle-down theory of nineteenth century capitalism actually works,” he said. The most critical philosophical change was the Government’s “total belief in money and the market,” he said. “If you’ve got money then you’re in. If you

haven’t got money and you can’t pay for it, then it is becoming increasingly clear that you can’t have it even if it is related to basic needs such as health care.” Mr Consedine said that both the Institute of Policy Studies and the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research had said the new tax laws were regressive. About 80 people attended last evening’s lecture, the first of an eightweek series on “Public and Private Control in New Zealand,” organised by the W.E.A. Further lectures on different topics by other speakers will be held each Monday evening until November 17, at the W.E.A. Centre, 59 Gloucester Street, at 7.30 p.m. The course costs $11.94 (including GST).