PUT BACK TO WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 16, 20 January 1936, Page 11

PUT BACK TO WORK

FULL-TIME RATES

QUEENSLAND UNEMPLOYED

The steps taken by the Labour Government in Queensland to over-come-the unemployment problem were detailed by the Hon. M. P. Hynes in an interview, states the Christchurch "Star-Sun." Mr. Hynes is the secretary for Labour and Industry in the Queensland Government.

He said that a Labour Government was in power in Queensland from 1915 to 1029. In 1929, the party suffered a defeat at the poll, but in 1932 Labour was sent back with a good majority. The electors had evidently tried the policy of the anti-Labour group, which brought retrenchments in connection with the rehabilitation oil industries, and had found it far from successful. When the Labour Government went out of office in 1929 the percentage of unemployment was 8.2, and after three years with the anti-Labour faction in power the percentage had risen to 19.7. Wages in that time had been reduced, hours of work lengthened, and the Arbitration Court rendered powerless. ■ ' ■' ■ , . • ' . . "POVERTY COMPETITION." ! In fact, said Mr. Hynes, the Government had entered into a poverty competition. The result was that Queensland had the lowest standard of living of. any State in the Commonwealth w hen Labour assumed office. j "We were faced," he said, "with the problem of restoring those living standards. It was mainly done by the restoration , of the Arbitration Court and re-establishing the confidence and optimism of the people. "How far we have succeeded can be judged from the fact that today the unemployment figures are the same as in 1929. We have, in Queensland, during the last four years, brought about the , rehabilitation of many industries and today the Queensland people enjoy the lowest cost of living and at the same time the highest wages, both nominal and effective, in the Commonwealth, together with the lowest number of unemployed. At the same time the general prosperity of the primary producers is better than in any other State." The method they had employed was to replace intermittent relief work with full-time work, said Mr. Hynes, paid for under the conditions of the Arbitration Court awards. TAXATION SCALE. Unemployment taxation was on a graduated scale. Exemption was allowed up to £78 a year. Twopence in the £ was paid on incomes under £104, fivepence on incomes under £208, eightpence on incomes under £499, and elevenpence in excess of that amount. A reduction of a penny in the £ was brought into effect during the last session of Parliament. "We have not attempted to restore normal conditions by revolutionary changes but by a gradual process," said Mr. Hynes. "This policy has not created any disturbance in industry, and things generally are most satisfactory." ,