PARLIAMENT HOSPITAL RATING DISCUSSED BY HOUSE

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 August 1946, Page 4

PARLIAMENT HOSPITAL RATING DISCUSSED BY HOUSE

Minister’s Proposal for Relief Government Not in Favour of Abolition - (P.A.) ' WELLINGTON, August 1. Whatever relief from hospital rating was given to ratepayers, the Government would not countenance the. money required coming out of the Social Security Fund, said the Minister of Health (Mr. Nordmeyer), when speaking in the local government discussion in the House of Representatives to-day. Mr. Nord--1 meyer said it might be possible to ■ do something along the lines the Select Committee had suggested of stabilising the hospital rate on the 1935-39 average by payments from the Consolidated Fund, but he thought it would be better to fix a fair standard rate for the whole of New Zealand, above which the hospital rate should not rise. Mr. W. Sullivan (Opposition,- Bay of Plenty): You are just stalling the question. Mr. Nordmeyer: No. . It depends on what. the Government considers a fair rate. Mr. W. J. Polson (Opposition, Stratford) said the Minister was not suggesting relief.’ The Same Service. Mr. Nordmeyer said that his proposal would help boards with high levies more than the committee’s proposal, which was to stabilise their rates at the level of 1935-39, while he proposed that the Dominion should be taken as a whole. That would also facilitate amalgamation, which was desirable. Mr. Nordmeyer said he had always thought it wrong that ratepayers in different areas should pay at different rates for the same service. An important point was that the expenditure must come from somewhere. Although the committee’s proposal might result in a reduction of the rates a man paid, he might find that he paid more in the total of the reduced rate and increased taxation. Mr. J. N. Massey (Opposition, Franklin): What’s wrong with that? Why shouldn’t the population pay? Mr. Nordmeyer said the committee did not recommend that the money to pay the difference between the stabilised rate and the present levy should come out of the social security tax. Mr. Massey: It recommends that it come out of the Consolidated Fund. Mr. Nordmeyer: No other recommendation would be acceptable to the Government. Restricting Expenditure. Mr. Nordmeyer added that if the rate were stabilised in the way he suggested or in the way the committee suggested, some means must be found to ensure that hospital boards kjept capital and maintenance expenditure within reason. Boards varied tremendously in their capacity to control expenditure. Even with the brake of a local rate, some tended to be extravagant. That tendency would undoubtedly be increased if more help were being obtained from the Government. Mr. W. A. Sheat (Opposition, Patea): The Health Department has to approve their expenditure. 1 Mr. Nordmeyer said that if either the proposal of the committee or his proposal were adopted there would have to be a greater measure of departmental control. Speaking ■ earlier in the debate, rural members of the Opposition, supporting the committee’s recommendation, said it was a compromise. They believed that hospital costs, like those of education and other social services, should be borne out of the net incomes of the people generally. They could see no reason ipr tying hospital costs to the land and thought their real relation was to population. Minister’s Reticence. The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Parry) refused to be drawn on the Government’s attitude towards hospital rating, or on his personal opinion, beyond saying that he was in favour of the report being referred to the Government for its consideration. Both Mr. Nordmeyer and Mr. T. H. McCombs (Government, Lyttel- i ton) said the Government was defi- < nitely not in favour of the ultimate < abolition of hospital rates. Mr. McCombs, supporting Mr. 1 Nordmeyer’s suggestion of a stand- ] ard rate, suggested one of either l-3d ( or 0.4 d in the £ capital value. That ] •would give real relief to practically < every local body. It would bring in j about £1,000,000, against the total j hospital levy for the current year of < approximately £1,800,000. He agreed ( that local financial responsibility j should be limited, but said boards } should have encouragement to effi- ] ciency. One way of doing that -would be to make the cost for each occu- 1 pied bed over a standard figure a charge on the rates. . 1

DATE OF PRESENTATION OF BUDGET (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 1. A hint that the Budget will be presented on August 15 was given by the Minister of Finance (Mr. Nash) in the House of Representatives this evening. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. S. G. Holland) asked the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) if he could give the date for the Budget. Mr. Fraser replied that he had seen some announcement in the newspapers. “Two dates were mentioned, August 8 and 15,” commented Mr. Holland. “I presume it will be the second.”

Mr. Nash: That would be a better presumption than the eighth. Mr. Fraser: I was hoping it would be the eighth. Mr. Holland (apparently referring to the bareness of the order paper): I’ll bet you were.