THINKER OR TINKER ?

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1934, Page 11

THINKER OR TINKER ?

FRAMING THE BUDGET

LABOUR CRITICISM

Several aspects of Government policy as revealed in the Budget wero attacked by Mr. J. A. Lee (Labour, Grey Lynn) in the House of Representatives last night during the debate on tho Financial Statement. He warmly criticised the Government for reducing unemployment taxation when there wore .still thousands of men out of work.

"There aro Budgets and Budgets," said Mr. Lee. "And thcro aro Budgeters and Budgeters."

A Labour member: And Budgcteers. Mr. Lee: Yes, and you spell it "tears."

They had had "round the corner Budgets" before, but now they had a "thinker's Budget."

Mr. A. J. Stallwortliy (Independent, Eden): Did you say thinker's or tinker's? (Laughter.)

Mr. Lee said Mr. Coates had gone into retirement to think and the people had waited with bated breath to see the result. The Minister had been congratulated on producing a balanced Budget, but he did not know whether Mr. Coates wag entitled to tho credit or whether the printer of pound notes was entitled to it. The printer had produced £28,000,000 worth of notes, and the result was a balanced Budget. This was from, a Government which had condemned the use of tho printing press. Tho Government could get the money when it wanted it for its own purposes, but it could not get the money to save the people of New Zealand. Mr. Lee said that the Labour Parly hold that tho Government should not raise new loans, but should mobilise the country's financial resources. There were slight evidences in the Budget that tho Government recognised that its deflationary policy had been a wrong one. The increase in wages and pensions was one evidence of a change of heart, but tho whole fact of the matter was that the reductions should never have been made in the first place. Millions of pounds had been taken out of circulation as a result of tho deflationary policy pursued by the Government. Instead of talking about putting boys on the farms, the Government should consider making the boys artisans and preparing them to take a part in the industrial life of the community. What was the use of putting boys on farms in an age of quotas? The small farms scheme had been hailed as a solution of tho unemployment problem and the land was to bo dotted with prosperous farms of 10 acres or so. New Zealand was to be a picture of rural contentment. But what a tragedy the whole scheme had been. THE UNEMPLOYMENT FUND. Mr. Lee said the Government was crowing over the fact that the Unemployment Fnnd was in a sound position, but instead of crowing it should be ashamed of the fact, for the Unemployment Fund was in a sound position because people were going unfed, unclothed, and unhoused. While they were saving money out of unemployment, they were talking about spending thousands of pounds more on guns and other defences. Returned soldiers wero out of work and yet they were providing money for purposes of war. Members of Parliament, he declared, had no right, to better their own financial position while there were thousands of people who knew desperate poverty. Mr. R. Semplo (Labour, Wellington East): It's a crime. Mr. Leo said tho Government had no right to reduce unemployment taxation while there were 60,000 men out. of work. Tho Government claimed that it was doing its best to help the unemployed with the money at its command, but tho fact that it was reducing the resources of tho unemployed by £1,000,000 a year showed that such was not the case. The Minister of Finance, said Mr. Lee, had said that pensioners wero the recipients of the State's bounty, but he -submitted that the pensioners had earned every penny they received. The Minister's statement had aTouscd more resentment in the country than anything else. The Government was embarking on a modified public works policy, not because it wanted to solve the problems of the people but simply because the banks told it to do so. The banks were exploding with money and they were ready to "raise the wind" at a certain rate of interest. Tho Government had created millions of pounds and naturally banks did not want it to lie idle.