NO BUDGET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21361, 15 June 1931, Page 12

NO BUDGET

UNPRECEDENTED POSITION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. (From Opr Own . Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 3> A position unprecedented in the history of New South Wales has arisen as a result of the fact that although the financial year will end on June 30 no Budget speech will have been - delivered on that date. No Budget speech has been delivered since 1929, when the last was made by the Nationalist Treasurer (Mr Stevens),. ' It has been explained by the ministerial colleagues of the Premier (Mr Lang) that in consequence of * the Premiers’ Conference in Melbourne’‘and the absence of the Premier, it would *.■: be impossible to have the Budget pre-. sented this financial year. It was'also possible that the. Budget that had been drafted might have to be altered if agreement were reached on the financial ; issue before ,the Premiers’! Conference. It is known that the Premier intended to forecast increased taxation and an. alteration in the incidence of the unem- a ployment relief tax—-a luxury by the £ way that already costs the wage- -- earners of the State. Is in the pound on their iiicomes. It is believed that he intended .to reduce the tax on lower wages and increase the rate on the . higher. ; r . : The announcement that no Budget speech would bo delivered came as an unpleasant shock to members of, the ' other parties in the Assembly. 1 It was first made known when the Acting ?■ Premier (Mr Baddely) introduced in the ; . House a Supply Bill for £2,648,800 to. defray the expenses of the various; ■ ernment departments and services of the State up. to the end of June next. The » Bill was “gagged” through .the House with little ceremony amid the protests of the Opposition parties! The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Bavin) com- ;, mented that they were faced with an unprecedented , position. For the first ■ time in the history of, the State a financial vear had practically expired with- .; out a" Budget, r The whole of the finances ; of the State and the finances of it he : public service had been carried on without proper authority by appropriation. Neither Parliament nor the public knew anything about the state of the ‘ finances. The Leader of the Country Party (Mr Buttenshaw) said that the gagging of the Bill through the House after a little . over ah hour’s debate illustrated the farce to which 1 the present administra- . tion had reduced parliamentary government. The Minister, of Agriculture (Mr jDunn) had recently admitted that the debit balance at the end of the year would probably be about eight and a-haif millions—the largest deficit of any State in the Commonwealth. That was the unenviable record that the Lang Ministry had given New South Wales. Yet they could not even discuss it.