HELPING THE WEAK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1938, Page 6

HELPING THE WEAK

HUMANE LEGISLATION

GOVERNMENFS OBJECTIVE

The Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) said that the Government was determined to meet the needs of all the people of the Dominion. There was an abundance of everything that was necessary to sustain life, and it was the duty of the strong to help the weak. That was all they were asking in the Bill, and they were not going to allow any combination to stand in the way of their attaining that objective. "We can under-

stand the opposition from the Tory newspapers and Tory politicians, because they have always been an obstacle to human progress," said Mr. Armstrong. He was pleased that the Bill made provision for universal superannuation. The Government had not found it possible to bring it into operation right away, but it would make provision for the first instalment in 1940. As the Bill stood in its present form every- j one not over the age of 35 would qualify for the full amount at 65 years of age, irrespective of income. It was humane legislation, and should be embodied in the laws of every country that claimed to be a Christian country. The means test was still in operation, but he hoped that it would disappear from the pensions law altogether. The Minister said that even at present the old age pensioners were not removed from the fear of want. It was found necessary to subsidise old people from the Employment Promotion Fund in order to enable them to live in something like ordinary decency. Notwithstanding invalidity pensions, there were thousands of people who were only temporarily sick, but their earnings were restricted for that period. But they were not able to qualify for the invalidity pension because they might get better next year or the year after. The Government thought that those people! should be able to live in the mean-1 time, and it was making provision for that "I want to ask the members of the Opposition the points to which they are opposed, the proposals they would strike out, and the pensions they would reduce," added the Minister. "If they are not prepared to do that, then they have no reasonable right to oppose the Bill or offer the criticism they have so far."