MR FRASER ON THE DEFENSIVE

Chronicle (Levin), 12 July 1946, Page 7

MR FRASER ON THE DEFENSIVE

-Press Association

CAUSTIC NATIONAL COMMENT ON HIS SPEECH

' By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, July 11. , Crowded gallerics greeted the Prime Minister when he entercd the Address-in-Heply debate in the House tonight. Mr. Fraser congratulated Mr. Holland 011 his purposeful speech last week, but eoniniiserated with hira beeause Ai r. Sullivau 4 ' blew so niauy big lioles " in it. 11c said Mr. Holland luul aeeused ; liiai of misrepresentation in his address , j to the Gisborne freezing workers, but j he adhered to the opinion he had ex- ' pressed at Gisborne that the poliey oi' auti-Labour forees was against liigh wages, better conditions and sliorter j hours for the nmss of the people. In j the tiine of erisis, the Opposition would ; liave no option but to apply wage euts. j ! Mr. Holland liad claimed that the | ! Natioual Party would give the Maoris | : equality but the Labour Party had 111 i 1 faet give 11 the Maoris equality for the 1 lirst tiine, abolishing the diserimination : j wliieh forinerly existed in wages, iien- 1 ! sions and in other nuitlers. True to Ihe ! ' poliey of the Natioual Party, the Op- j j position wero now trailing after Ihe j Govoriiuieiit with words, undertaking to i j give the Maoris the equality lliey aJ- j j ready enjoyed, but the Opposition had j uot assisted in the passing of legislation . j benelicial to the Maoris wlieu the Gov-J j erninent introdueed it. Mi'. Fraser deseribed the talk about a j Disinheritanee Bill as misrepresenta j tiou. He tiad never heanl ot' the al I leged reniit aml tlie oaly person he evei j 1 heard talk about il was nanied Mauder, i ! who later becanie organiser for the Ro- j forin Party. The onlv instauces of dis- i ' inheritanee in t his c-ountry had been I ; wliere wages wero redueed, fanners had j , to walk olf their fanns, and people lost j , their houses dirhetly through the poliey | of the Natioual Party of that day. t 1 lle joined issue with those who sani ! , iai))ort eontrols shouhl be abolished, or , | a board should be set up to abolish j 1 thetn, and that it was quite right to j I saeriiiee the seeondary industries of the ■ jeouatry. Those industries wero abso- : lulely essentiul to tlie life of the JDomiii- j ion. Mr. Fraser said the Natioual Partv , ■ was tryiag to seek popularity by ehani ■ pioning niany features of Labour 's , legislative programine. Would "the Op ; .position, it' they attained ottiee, 'repeal I ihe Land Saies Ae.t, Keserve Bank Aet ' Bank of New Zealand Aet .' ' Mr. Goosnian (Waikato): You will . liave our answers to those questions iii good timo. ' Mr. Fraser said tlie Opposition had . aeeused the Governnient of using the IJOserve Bank eredit for liousing. Would the Opposition renounee sueh a poliey . and would they in faet sell tlie houses , wliieh had been built with publie ' eredit Did the tenants of State houses | realiso that their weeklv outgoings would be vastly inereased if they were j to purchase their ••htnnes Wtthiii thcrr lifetime or that, alternati vely, if payineuts reniained tlie sanie, it would take about 77 years before a house beeatne their own ? Mr. Fraser said he was eoneerneil about tlie ehange of eolour of the Xational Party and wheti he heard the Leader of the Opposition 's speech and reeeived soine Natioual Party ■ pam phlets, he thought • of the eliainelcon wliieh had power to ehange ils eolour through a range of 4'yellow\ red, grey, brow n and dull iukv blue. '' Mr. Fraser produeed wliat lie said was tlie Natioual Party 's lalest iiainphLet entitled ''Target for Toniorrow. ' " lle drew at tent ion to the predoniinating eolour uti tlie eover and deseribed it as "dull inkv blue." Tn the eeutre of ihe target was tlie Natioual Partv eoufereuee ( Goveriuuent laughter). .Mr. Holland: It is uot a pieture of the conferenee nf tlie Natioual . Party. M r. Fraser went 011 to eritieise tlie eontents of the paniphlet and elaimed there never had been a Minister who liad helped the nianufaeturers of the eountry so unieh as the Minister of Industries and Commerce. The Labour G-overmnent wanted sec- ' ondary industries to go on and declared there was room enough in New ; Zealand for both State and private enterprise to operate. The only test was which could handle the job hest. It was in the interests of the National Party to suffocate and sweep out some , seeondary industries. Mr. (ioosman: That is incorrect. Alr. Fraser challenged the Opposition j to declare whether, despite their criticisin of ihe buihiing coutrol reguiations, they desired the . bolition of those reguiations al preseut and wislied to give , every citizen the right to build wlien, ' what and wliere he liked at a tiine wlieu liousing needs were so great. Fx-I servicenien only recently had asked , , that tlie buihiing reguiations shouhl be niade ntore stringent and inore severei , penalties imposed for tui inl'ringetiieiil. j Mr. Fraser ugreed that rural liousing j niiidc as iniportant a cont ribution to tlie eountry 's needs as buihiing houses ' in eities but the problem was to get | biiihlers to operate in the eountry; ' areas. 1 Social Sec-urity. Mr. Fraser said the Opposition 's j l poliey toward soeial seeurity had been t'ull of ineousisteneies. Tlie Opposition . today tried. to woo the eleelQ.rs bv undertaking to maintiiin - tlie Soeial I Seeurity Aet' but the Opposition, when tlie measure was before the House, liad ; oll'ered doleful speeehes predieting New : Zealand would be driven to paupensm. . Mr. Holland, speiuking in Christchureh, ! liad said it was applied luiiaev to em- ! bark on sueh a sehemc without tlie ! l'ullest inqniry, This was after a rom- ! inittee of the llouse had made a full j inquiry for weeks and had eonsidered aetuarial adviee. The Opposition had done everytliing possible to liamper the l Goveruiueut bringing in a selieme wliieh had led the world in soeial regcneration J and enianeipation. Tlie Natioual Partv now deelared itself proud of the soeial seeurity seheiue. Was this a ehange of heart or ehange of poliey ? Would they tell the people today that they were wrong about it?

Mr. Parry: That's the poiut. Alr. Fraser asked jf the Natioual Partv still betieved that the people, would be driven to pauperism if the soeial seeurity sclienie conlinued. The Opposition had dbne nothing to help the selieme and everytliing to hinder it. Meals at School. 1-Ie would weleome coo])eratioii on both sides of the House to implement a scheme to enable se.liool children to liave meals in schools. Tlie seheiue was started in the United Kingdom beeause of the poverty of parents but that was uot the reason it was beiug started in New Zealand. It was- a question oi diotelies and also invoJved a big build- i ing progranune. The educational policv of the Governnient was to equalise opportunities l'oi education. ,** lu conelusion he said the Opposition j had coine forward not quarrelJing .with major features of Labour 's legislation but eiying about shortages. Industiw lnust be kept up and goods distributed, or the Governiuent 's social seeurity 1 poliey could not be niaintained. The Labour Party 11111st havc industriai and political support. Mr. W. J. Broadfoot (Waitomo) said the Prime Blinister had spent an hour and 35 minutes in the dock — on trial. He had "been on the defensive throughout his speech. It might be said the Prime Minister had been on skids and they were getting more slippery every day. The whole purpose of Mr. Fraser 's speech had been to instil fear into the people — fear of the National Party. Mr. Broadfoot said the Governnient had doubled social seeurity bcneiits but j was paying the 111 with inflated nioney wliieh nieant they were worth 110 niore' to'tlie reeipients. " We liave nothing to be ashamed oi in our political pust," said Mr. Broad- 1 foot, "nor in any other past of ourb| but wliat about tlie past of some of I the Governmeiit menibers iu 1914-13? I Some of tliein did — 1 won't say what 1 they did." Yoiees: Bay il! Mr. Broadfoot: Yery well. 1 will j say it. They did tinie and it apparenUy 1 entitled tliein to niinisterial rank. Mr. Parry: They would do it agam j for the saine prineiple. Mr. Broadfoot: 1 dou't doubt it They were anti-eoiiseription tlien, but ! this time they had to faee up to "fea lities. Alr. W. J. Polson: They swallowed j their alleged prineiples. Sale of Motor Vehicles Mr. Broadfoot said 'ex-servicemeii ! were perturbed beeause they were 1111 ! alile to obtain molorears, trueks and motoreyeles and beeause eivilians were ; gi\en preferenee despite the promise | that ex-soldiers would be given pi'iority. I Some time ago nearly 3000 veliieles! iid*k'h e amo aute tlie possession of the i Governnient. were sold by teuder and ; 1200 G.Ai.C. trueks were sold for j £23,000 or £1.3 eaeli. They w\pre resoh. | at pfiees ranging from £300 to £14i>0| eaeh. There niust liave been a valua tion and iuspection made of theni by j tlie general inspeetor of motor veliieles1 but wliat had he been doing? The sale was a w Hilton wastage of publie asset - and was Ihe responsibility of tlie Lab ; our Government. TJiere were 42: J Dodges sold for £00 eaeh, realising'i . I £25,200. A quantity of jee[is were soln , to an Auekland lirni whieh reeeived : their nioney bark after half the nuinbe. ' were! sold. There should liave been n j competent motor trnder appointed !«•, nuetion tlie veliieles and realise full | value for tliein. Wliat liad the l'rinu | Minister to say about it ? Mr. Fraser: 1 will be glad to diseuss 1 tlie inatler. Alr. Broadfoot asked what was tlie! position of tlie general inspeetor oi I motor veliieles.' What right had he to , oreupv a room in tlie Llouse of Repre- | sentatives when he was doing nolhing.'; He suggested that a Koyal Comiuission j shouhl be set up to investigato tlie ter j rible iiieffieieney in regard to Ihe dis i pOsal oi lialf a niillion pounds worth of I fnibiic pfo]>erty. II011. A. 11. Nordnieyor said Ihe faet.- [ of tlie disposal of niotor veliieles would , 110 iloubt be eoinpletely explaiued to j tlie House by those members who were j 011 the Wai* Asse'ts Realisation Board , The veliieles involved were sent lo New i Zealand by tlie Fnited .States authori | ties beeause they could not be repaired in tlie Paeitie. Tenders, all in oue lot, were ealled for tlie disposal of tlie vehicles.