EMPLOYMENT TAX

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20815, 25 August 1937, Page 8

EMPLOYMENT TAX

HINT OF ABOLITION HEALTH AND PENSION SCHEMES In an address at Geraldine on Monday evening, Mr C. Morgan Williams, M.P., for Kaiapoi, hinted that there was a possibility that, on the adoption of the national health and superannuation scheme, the present employment tax would be abolished and unemployment relief would be provided from the Consolidated Fund. Mr Williams explained that he was not speaking “In connection with the national health superannuation scheme,” said Mr Williams, “there is a lot of guessing going on. I do not know the details and neither does anyone else. The Government has appointed a committee to consider the various proposals, and the committee will bring down and report on theue proposals and will state what they will cost. We have not got a magic wand, and cannot say ‘here is the money; buy what you want.’ We cannot see any other way of getting the money to finance the national health and insurance schemes other

than by taxation, and the amount you will have to pay will depend on the amount of service you ar? going to get. When the report Is brought down we wifl have to deride hcv. much you are willing to pay for the service rendered. If we bring a liberal pension and a liberal health scheme forward you will have to give accordingly. Everybody is inclined to be looking forward to the benefits, but they are not so on paying for them. I do hope the Government will abolish the unemployment taxation. One of the proposals Vs to abolish the direct tax and make unemployment relief a charge on the Consolidated Fund. However, I am not speaking officially, and nobody knows what is going to be done. If the cost is going to be then the Government will have to consider ways of relieving the people of taxation in other directions. The funds for unemployment relief might be taken cut of the Consolidated Fund, but Parliament and Cabinet D.ave not had an opportunity to discuss the question.’’ Mr Williams continued that it was obvious they could not pay for a superannuation scheme unless there was a sufficient working population. The necessary finance had to be extracted from the working population. The great problem was to maintain a sufficiently strong working population to carry the pensioners and all the superannuitants. It would be no use unless there w T ere enough people to maintain the superannuation scheme. Statistics showed that in another 15 years there would not be so many young people, and every year the number of children reaching school leaving age would diminish rapidly until, by 1950. the number of children of school leaving age would be 25 per cent fewer than it was to-day. A Magnified Kumara “If the population continues to decline." the country will fall into a decay, such as Kumara and the other abandoned mining towns on the West Coast have done.” said Mr Williams. “The whole of New Zealand will be like Kumara, oniy on a magnified scale. We must ta’-e steps to see that there i»; a healthy crop of young p: pie coming in to maintain the country. Mr Williams expressed the opinion that ar. essential thing was to introduce a decent national child endowment, and not, as at present, a weekly endowment of 2'- for the third and each subsequent child, payable only to parents earning less than £4 weekly. “The very poor are allowed 2/- a week, but the very ri h man, with an income of £lO.OOO a year, is grant 'd a £5O income tax exemption a year, not for the third and subsequent children, but for every dependent child.” he added. “The income tax on £5O is worth very much more than 2/- a week. We should extend our policy and give an endowment to every mother in the country, rich or poor, ar.d. I think, we should wipe out the present £5O exemption allowed on large incomes. I think this is absolutely fundamental. We have reached the point where the rearing of children is no ’onger a private matter—it is a national necessity. No one doubts that it is the duty of Hie State to educate the children, and, similarly, provision should be made for adequate child endowment. The whole of our national and economic fabric will collapse unless there are young people coming on to maintain our social structure.”