POST-WAR YEARS

Evening Star, Issue 25225, 12 July 1944, Page 6

POST-WAR YEARS

NEED FOR STRICT CONTROLS GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE Press Association—By Telegraph—CoDyright (Rec. 1 p.m.) ' CANBERRA, July 12. Post-war partnership between private enterprise and Government control has been advocated by Mr Curtin. It would be dangerous in the disturbed years following the war, he said, to hand over the affairs of the country to private enterprise without strict control. To avert that danger the Federal Government must have the necessary powers. Without them the Government could not control prices, effectively ration goods in short supply, or control investment. " The Federal Government is asking the country at the referendum to give it the powers to deal with these matters, which the British Government has placed at the forefront of its White Paper on employment policy," said Mr Curtin. " The British plan to allow private enterprise to play an important part in post-war development applies to all democratic countries, but controls are essential. After the war spending power will be high and goods will be in short supply, while there will be an enormous demand for investment projects. Unless private enterprise is controlled the weak will he driven to the wall and the financially strong will become more firmly entrenched. Profiteering will be rife, and the people's savings will be lost in the inflation which will inevitably follow."