INDUSTRIAL BILL FASHIONED ON 1946 NATIONAL POLICY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 20, 3 August 1949, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL BILL FASHIONED ON 1946 NATIONAL POLICY

(Special to Beacon) Wellington, Tuesday

I- This Bill is, I believe, fashioned on the National Party’s policy for the 1946 election,” said Mr W. Sulliven (National, Bay of Plenty) speaking in the House of Representatives in the second debate of the Industrial Relations Bill, which is designed to bring about improved relationships between employers and workers. “At the time of the 1946 election we provided in our policy for closer employee and employer relationship. We provided for an inauguration of profit-sharing or bonus scheme, or some such incentive schemes. “We did that for the express purpose of countering the- decline in production because we could see the disastrous situation into which our country was drifting. We realused the necessity for some such scheme, and so we embodied that proposal in our policy. “Our aim was to bring about the production of a greater quantity of goods at a- lower price for New Zealand consumers,” Mr Sullivan added. “As a political party we felt that the policy enunciated in our programme of 1946 could be handled through the Department of Labour as now constituted. “We believe that inside that Department there should be men politically free, men with no political bias, whose job it shoukL'be to see that the worker gets a fair deal under his award or conditions of employment without' leaning towards one side or the other. I believe that in the Department of Labour we have such men today. Moreover, I believe that we could select men throughout the country who could be attached to the Department if Labour as specialists in certain industries, and who could bring about a better relationship between employer and employee in those industries than is possible under any legislation.”