Treasury warned

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 12

Treasury warned

By

Simon Louissor

in Wellington

The Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, has released Treasury briefings provided to the then Minister of Finance, Sir Robert Muldoon, after the 1981 General Election. Mr Douglas took the action after the papers were given to a Sunday newspaper by the Secre-' tary to the Treasury under the Official Information Act. The “economic overview” tendered essentially the same advice as that offered to the incoming Labour Government in 1984 — the need for

economic adjustment to remedy New Zealand’s poor economic performance, Mr Douglas said.

Labour made much political mileage after the 1984 election from its “opening the books” exercise, releasing the 1984 briefing to show in what state the Treasury had assessed the economy. The 1981 document, in forthright language, slams the performance of the New Zealand economy saying it "left much to be desired” when measuring objectives such as full employment, balance of payments, economic growth, price stability, and the distribution of income.

“There is no easy or rapid way to escape from this unsatisfactory situation,” it says. National had been elected on its “think big” platform in 1981. However, the economic overview, which was not published by the Muldoon Government, was very critical of some projects. “The economic viability of some projects is very doubtful and unless adjustment policies are accelerated they will inhibit the growth of existing export industries,” it says. The Treasury laid down a programme which was largely ignored by the Muldoon Government but