STABILISATION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 1, 22 August 1944, Page 3

STABILISATION

MR W. SULLIVAN'S ADDRESS

TELLING BUDGET SPEECH

Stabilisation was one of the su

jeets deal with by Mr W. Sullivan, National M.P. for Bay of Plenty, during liis Budget speech in the House of Representatives. The. farmers and llie Opposition had not opposed the stabilisation policy j lie said, but they wanted to see that policy rigidly adhered to. The dairy farmers were asking the Government to pay to them from the extra amounts paid by Great Britain, 2d a 11) for buttcrfat and that included 1.2H1 per lb given recently. The farmers stated that any surplus above that amount should be paid into tlie Stabilisation Account and should remain there until released with the consent ol' the industry. Thej' said that any sub? sidies paid subsequent to 1942 might be taken out of the, Stabilisation Account. "Whore arc the Ministers' answers put. to him by the dairy farmers?" asked Mr Sullivan. "There is no answer." The he said f had a right to know where they stood and should not be diddled out of their just dues. The manoeuvring and shifting that was evident on the Ministerial benches Avas designed to bamboozle the farmers and to de,prive them of the proceeds of their products to which they were justly entitled. Mr Sullivan said he had received many communications, from farmers inside and outside, his electorate urging that the Opposition should insist that the Government should give tlie industry a fair go. The farmers were not going to allow the Government to take money from their funds Avithout the consent of the, industry. So far as the farming industry was concerned, in Australia and Great Britain there was no quibble as to Avhat Avas going to be paid out. In Britain the full amount was being paid out. In Australia the full amount Avas, being paid out ? and, in addition, the Government was subsidising the dairy industry to the extent of about £6 500 000 J I per annum. AVliat Avas the position in this country? "We are quibbling about what justly belongs to the farmer," he said. "11 feci quite sure that the Government would be very Avi.se indeed to take, notice in view " of tiie unsettled feeling that exists throughout the country. The farmers are very unsettled to-day and they are not prepared to take, many more penalties from the Government. I can say that because I live among the farmers and 1 knoAV them, and I realise that this Goveminent has not given them a fair spin."' "The Minister of Marketing and the Minister of Finance must have a most guilty feeling about Avorking on a formula Avhicli is based on a production of 2501b of butter fat per cow annually. The Minister knows better than 1 do that no herd lias shown this return since that formula Avas adople.il. I say that the whole position should be recast. We know that the last increase giA'en to the farmers—the increase of 1.21d —is to be paid out in Avages. ft will be of no assistance to the

industry itself. The Government lias not given to the producer the price to which he is entitled. Yet so far as that industry is concerned it can lie said that we, in this country are dependent entirely upon it to give us the standards which Ave are all so anxious to see maintained. Only in the last l'ew months the Prime Minister and the Minister ol' Finance went cap in hand to Great Britain to say 'give us a lift up in order that we may remain solvent., so that we can bring materials into this country for after-war production. Give us a higher price for our produce in order that we can pay for the, goods we require.' The Min-* ister says that it is not a ease of claiming extra because we sold so hut. because we bought so dearly from the United Kingdom. But what is the difference whe.n it comes to balancing a Budget? Either we have been selling our commodities too cheaply or we have been buyirg at too high a price. .If business is. carried on in that way there can be only one result and that is bankruptcy and in this case it would be national bankruptcy. The daily farmers, the meat producers and the wool growers want a better deal from this Government than they have had in the past."