MR. SAVAGE'S COMMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 78, 2 April 1935, Page 10

MR. SAVAGE'S COMMENT

RECONSTRUCTION PLAN WHERE IS IT? "They evidently have decided it is better to hang together than to hang separately," said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. M. J. Savage, commenting on the Coalition Leaders' statement. "It seems to me they will hang anyway, but they may last longer as a Coalition than if they go out and light each other. "How can the Coalition leaders justify their claim that considerable work has already been accomplished by ,the Coalition Government when the problem of unemployment remains to be solved? There is nothing to be seen in the way of results. No one would suggest that no action should be taken. The Coalition leaders say they have been obliged to bring in drastic measures to maintain our primary production; yet while legislation dealing with that question was in front of the House recently we were receiving telegrams of protest against the Government's proposals from the very people who were supposed to be assisted by the legislation. "The Coalition leaders express the belief that they have now established the main lines of their policy. One is entitled to ask: What are they? Then they say their plan of reconstruction has sufficient strength and elasticity to absorb such shocks as may be experienced from time to time from overseas. Again I ask: What is that plan of reconstruction? I have seen no evidence of it yet. The Coalition leaders go on to say the beneficial effects of the measures taken are now being felt. Well, I have not yet met any of the people who have received the bene-1 fits. "According to the statement, it is important that the measures taken by the Government should not be negatived by policies inconsistent with our national needs or violently reversed by measures superficially attractive but economically unsound. Ido not think there is any party in politics today that stands for any policy inconsistent with the national needs. •Most students of economics agree that any plan is inconsistent with the economic needs of the people it is bound to fail. The Coalition leaders \also say that these are not the times 'for splitting our people into factions. They seem to imagine that the Coalition Party in the House represents the people. In my opinion the Government does not represent the people. I agree that the people should stand together to make the fundamental changes necessary in the economic life of this country. Nothing else is worth attempting."