‘Years of immense pain’

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 6

‘Years of immense pain’

Three years of the Labour Government’s economic policies had brought immense pain without laying a foundation for future growth, the National member of Parliament for Fendalton, Mr Philip Burdon, told a big campaign meeting last evening. Mr Burdon said Labour’s strategy had been to lay a foundation for new growth on a pure market philosophy aimed at "squeezing inflation out of the system.” The reality was that New Zealand now had record inflation

of 18.9 per cent. “By any standards, we are viewing the tragedy of Rogernomics, its longterm failure,” he said.

"We have now reached the stage where the productive sector has retrenched to the point where it is disintegrating. We are placing at risk the achievements of generations of New Zealanders.

“The manufacturing sector is looking more at risk than we have ever seen in the last three years. Firms that have become household names in this city are either

closing or shifting their productive base offshore,” Mr Burdon said.

The National Party was determined to promote and encourage New Zealand’s productive base. “We reject totally the idea that we can rely on our service sector and ignore our productive base.

“Rogernomics has delivered nothing. It has failed by its own criteria of success, reducing inflation.” Mr Burdon said New Zealand had fewer 17-year-olds in educational training than any

O.E.C.D. country apart from Portugal. That was a “deplorable statistic,” and the National Party was determined to make education more accessible, he said. National would fight the upsurge in violent crime by increasing police numbers, so that people could feel reasonably secure in their own community.

The Labour Government had cynically deceived its own supporters and saw itself as “above the normal standards of accountability,” Mr Burdon said.