LABOUR POLICY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22210, 10 September 1935, Page 11

LABOUR POLICY

MR. SAVAGE'S SPEECH TWELVE points stated MANY BENEFITS PROMISED rULL WAGE RESTORATION ' INDUSTRY AND FINANCE In h speech before a large audience jn the Town Hall last night, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. M. J. Savage, summarised under 12 headings what the labour Party undertakes to do if it is put into office at the coming general election. The Mayor, Mr. Ernest Davis, presided, and Auckland Labour members of Parliament and candidates occupied seats on the stage. Labour supporters mustered in force to hear their Parliamentary leader, and showed everv sign of enthusiasm. A motion of confidence in the policy and platform of the party was carried with only a few dissentients. The 12 points were set out by Mr. Savage under the heading of " What Labour Will Do." They were: (1) Immediately restore the cuts made in all pensions, and where full pensions are involved, placo them on the basis of a reasonable standard of life. (2) Establish a national system of superannuation which will be payable to all citizens beginning at sixty years of age, or invalidity, and extending in accordance with scientific development and increased production. National Credit Authority (3) Restore all cuts made in wages iend salaries. (4) Safeguard superannuation rights of all civil servants. IF>) Assume control of the public credit and establish a national credit authority whose duty it will be to provide a money service sufficient to give effect to the will of Parliament. (6) Organise a national health service based upon universal insurance, providing for payment for services rendered, whether in the home or public institution, and : safeguarding rights of friendly societies. (7) Re-establish all able-bodied workers in the industries, public works, and services of the Dominion at rates cf pay thkt will "enable them to obtain an equitable share of the country's total production. (8) Guarantee economic prices to farmers and others who are producing in accordance with the Dominion's requirements, and further extend primary and secondarv industries. Secondary Industries (9) Provide substantial protection for secondary industries which can be .economically developed in the Dominion. (In this connection it is the intention of Labour to maintain customs tariffs where necessary until industry can be protected by substantial control of our external trade). (10; Re-adjust.mortgages on the basis of guaranteed prices, beginning at an average of prices ruling during the past eight or 10 years. (11) Extend the activities of the Education Department in providing free education from the kindergarten to the university, including the reinstatement of five-year-old children in the primary schools. (12) Co-opt the /ervices of all mem>hers who are .elected to support Labour in order to obtain their full service in the shaping and administration of the law. Building Home Market Amplifying some of the points, Mr. Savage said the time was long overdue for proper planning of production and overseas trade. The present tendency was to restrict existing forms of production by means of the introduction of the quota* If Dominion exports were to be restricted there appeared to bo only one logical alternative, namely, to build the home markets. That could be done only by the development of INew Zealand industries. New Zealand woollens were among the best in the world, and in many other lines Dominion products compared with the best imported. \Y hen that is so there is no reason for waiting for other countries to move before beginning to put our own house in order," continued Mr. Savage. Planned External Trade ." C'hildren leaving school are entitled to remunerative positions in the w c or , building industries in the land of their birth. If we cannot exchange Primary products for the manufactures of other countries, there is only one reasonable thing left for lis to do; that is to exchange a greater percentage of primary products with additional manufactures and services of our own counir erne as com ® f° r stocktaking, and after having considered natural resources and external commitments we should begin a national plan of reconstruction.

The planning of external trade is of £qual importance. Hit-or-iniss methods belong to a past ago, and immediate steps should he taken to enter into agreements with other parts of the ■British Commonwealth with the object of exchanging primary products for Roods that cannot be economically produced in the Dominion. There is no logical argument in favour of tariffs on goods that must be imported from tho -British Commonwealth, and these goods s?ou}d enter New Zealand duty free. Until definite agreements with Britain and other countries can bo arranged, and control of our external trade established, secondary industries which can economically developed in the Dominion must bo protected by tariffs." Universal Pension Scheme ~ Discussing Labour's plan for more liberal pensions, Mr. Savage urged his rearers not to let themselves be hoodwinked by Ministers' pre-election refert° social insurance, a national Bealth service, or national superannuation. The Government, ho said, had reduced all classes of pensions, and experience showed what its promises were Worth. Ihe fear of poverty in old age or invalidity was probably the greatest of all caust's of ,worry ending in sickness of ody and mind, and even death. Under present conditions there was no security tor anyone. The comparatively well-to-do Person of to-day might be a pauper toorrow after having spent a lifetime in tternpting to prepare for old age. A bloodied citizens below tho age of, say, years, should be prepared, with tho °' science, to accept tho responsi'ty of providing everything that went TK ° e wor living for all. • wo,l 'd menu superannuation racient to provide a high standard of . "ig for all citizens who had reached *n?-vl e °f years, or who, through int£l"s' were . "nable to provide for vnlvri 09 ,' sixtv years of age, or inaiidity, should bo tho test for all citi- ' " r superannuation or pension aufflTlni _ , ° Place them beyond the roach of in 'a'■ ' was already produced J? Cle "t Quantities to provide for tion v, ir - v ' anc l increasing producof Hf t+ mean increasing standards of \. ,vas a matter of organisation of ailf l equitable distribution hppno * )ro ± c '" ct ' more production was hot acrorr >nlish this, men should Tn J ne their lives on relief work. Tim n. nn .? or a national health serwit>« ,r 6 P°''?.V of Labour was to deal it woo'r easp , ln ' a " 'ts forms, wherever circnm c f° Un ' arcor ding to the physical it JSr each case. To do that fletelv j" coessar - v to have a comr'ice national health ser- ® eta universal insurance. ,

Dealing with the Dominion's external debt, Mr. Savage said the Labour Party was of (kpinion that war debts between nations should be cancelled. Britain and other countries had already suspended international war debt payments within the past three years. Labour would enter into immediate negotiations witli the British Government with a view to the cancellation of war debts, As regards ordinary debt, the rate of interest on the loans raised in Great Britain when prices were at a higher level imposed a heavy charge on the Dominion, and the Labour Party would take the necessary steps in co-operation with the British Government for the conversion of the Dominion's overseas debts to rates of interest in accord with ruling money rates and commodity prices. Ministers said that this was being carried out. The fact was that 110 action was taken until the loans fell due, and if that course was continued the present generation would have passed away without much relief from the burden of interest. For New Zealand the present was an era of Roval commissions and boards, the members o:r which drew large salaries and travelling expenses to carry out duties which rightly belonged to the Government of the day. To meet this situation it was the intention of Labour to co-opt all members elected under its banner and get the benefit of their services in the promotion and administration of legislation without resorting to Royal commissions and other non-representative bodies. In Labour's view, members of Parliament were elected to take their lull share in administering and shaping the law of the country. What was their use if they had to wait for the Ministry to tell them what to do next? | Tinder the present system rank-and-file j Government members usually did not ! know what legislation was coming down j until it actually appeared on the floor j of the House. Caucuses were called only when the Government was in a difficulty. Ihe change which Labour proposed would not increase the cost of government. Labour intended to make great fundamental changes in the economic life of the country and the living conditions of its people, and that without delay. In doing so it intended to provide for government by the people instead of government by Royal commissions. The public should take notice of this, because the world was moving toward j dictatorship, and the present Govern- i mcnt would take the powers of a die- ! tatorship unless it vrere deterred by the i expressed will of the people. The only occasion when a Royal commission was justified was to investigate charges of maladministration made against the Government. When a Royal commission was set up, say, to investigate the dairy industry, it was doing work which members ftf Parliament were paid to do, and which they ought to have sufficient ability to do. If they had not such ability, steps should be taken to obtain members who had.

GOVERNMENT RECORD GENERAL CRITICISM GROWTH OF PUBLIC DEBT An attack on the Government constituted the major part of Mr. Savage's speech last night, Ho condemned freely almost everything which the Government, has done. The Government's thinking, said Mr. Savage, was being done by Royal Commissions and committees, and in many cases it was being done very badly. Reactionary forces were destroying the foundation laid by the big men of the past. These forces began to operate when the Reform Party assumed office in 1912.

From 1912 to 1928 over £166,000,000 was added to the public debt, which meant th:it the country was spending not less than £10,000,000 a year more than it received for its production. Land and other speculators got more than their share of the benefit and not a voice was raised about inflation. From 1928 to 1933, £33,882,222 was added to the public debt. For that the United and Reform Parties must take the blame, said Mr. Savage. He asked if the Government's policy was to have debt in perpetuity. For the tremendous debt, increase the Government was sheltering behind war expenditure. Unemployment Position

■The Coalition Government was given an open cheque by tho electors, but all it had to show was "an army of un-emploj-ed and a few pieces of reactionary legislation." In October. 1931, immediately after the formation of the Coalition Government, there were over 51,000 registered unemployed, compared with between fiOOO and 7000 a year previously. In July this year over 55,000 men were a charge upon the unemployment fund. Mr. Savage attacked the Government's railway economy measures which involved the cessation of work on certain linen, and said £5,802,412 had been expended on lines on which work had since been stopped. "What," ho asked, "would be said of a privato company that blundered along in such a fashion?"

In reviewing wages redactions, Mr. Savage said that when Ministers were inquiring as to the source of finance that would be necessary to carry out Labour's policy it would bo well for them to remember the total amount destroyed by Acts: of Parliament since 192.2. Discussing superannuation, he asked if it was the intention of Ministers to legislate themselves out of their financial obligations under the Superannuation Act. He also criticised economies in educational expenditure. "At the end of the export season 1934," Mr. Savage said, "the Government had £23,000,000 sterling in London, most of which, when the ißudget was presented last year, had already been sold to the Reserve Bank. How was that sale brought about and who is the owner of the sterling which is still in London?" Inflation Alleged

After reviewing the transaction, he asked if it did not amount to a duplication of the £23,000,000 London sterling assets, and added: "It seems as if that London sterling and its Now Zealand equivalent are being used in London and in New Zealand at the same timo. In other words, it appears as if £23,000,000 London sterling will be doubled without any possible increase in the amount of goods that it originally represented. Is that not inflation of the deepest dyo? " Mr. Savage said people had been warned againsit the dancers of a Labour Government and the possible misuse of their deposits in the Post Office Savings Bank. Tho people's savings as reflected in the Post Office Savings Bank deposits were invested by the Government in public works, including suspended railway projects, and State advances securities good and bad, which, if put up for sale, would not realise anything like tho amount advanced. that did not mean the Dominion was bankrupt, but it did mean that people who lived in glass houses should be tho last to throw stones. The Exchange Rate Sir Alfred I'ansom had stated that the raising of tho exchange rate expanded tho national purchasing power by £10,000,000. Nobody believed that. It had merely transferred part of the existing buying. power from some people to others. It was the equivalent of an indirect tax on the whole of the people, rich and poor, the burden being greatest on largo families. It helped tho exporter when ho needed it least. On tho other hand, a guaranteed price would help the farmer when he needed it most. Goods and services should be the basis of the monetary system, said Mr. Savage. The publio credit should bo

the means used to establish a money system which would equate buying power with production and thus enable the people to get the full benefit of their labours. The use of the public credit should be controlled by a national credit authority. Mr. Savage touched upon the Agricultural (Emergency Powers) Act and said it provided for a virtual dictatorship in the primary industries. Its purpose appeared to be to squeeze the last ounce out of the industry concerned rather than to find means of paying for the increasing production, which was already an accomplished fact. Vote of Confidence The Mortgage Corporation, he added, had been substituted for the State lending departments, and to the extent that it had co-ordinated those departments it was justified. However, the introduction of private capital, £500.000. which was a mere bagatelle and onlv an excuse for drawing dividends, together with semi-private control, meant the end of State lending institutions so long as the present Governnirx't existed.

The following motion, proposed by Mr. B. Martin, the deputy-mayor, and seconded by Mr W. T. Anderton, Labour candidate for Kden, was carried with much enthusiasm:— "Believing that the present system of unemployment relief is insufficient to provide the necessaries of life for the unemployed, and is uneconomic from the public point of view; that a money system should be based upon goods and services, and the public credit controlled in the interests of the community by si national credit authority; and that guaranteed prices for farm products arc a natural corollary to guaranteed wages or other income, this meeting expresses its renewed confidence in the policy and platform as put forward by the New Zealand Labour Party and pledges its support of all Labour candidates at the coming Parliamentary election."