M.P. preaches parsimony

Press, 19 July 1988, Page 4

M.P. preaches parsimony

Wellington reporter New Zealanders have been criticised by the Opposition spokeswoman on finance, Miss Ruth Richardson, for behaviour that reflected economic circumstances they no longer enjoyed. She told Wellington Rotary yesterday that this behaviour reflected attitudes the nation could no longer afford. New Zealanders had

not been helped to change by the Labour Government’s own inability to change, she said. Good government would ensure a far more positive role in leading New Zealanders towards those habits of saving and promise of reward for hard work that were needed if New Zealand were to get out of the hole the Government had dug during the last four years, Miss Richardson

said. The Government’s habit of sternly lecturing people about the need to temper their inflationary expectations was matched only by fiscal and labour market habits that reinforce the expectations it was criticising. “Jawboning the market” was no substitute for Government reforms and the need for swifter and less painful adjustment, she said.