WAR ACCOUNT "SACRED TRUST FUND"
SECRECY CONDEMNED 'The War Expenses Account is the most sacred trust fund in this country and it is an outrage that that account should be operated on in secret and behind closed doors," declared Mr. W. A. Bodkin (National, Central Otago) in the Budget de/^te in the House of Representatives last evening-. Mr. Bodkin said it had always been a tradition in any democracy that Parliament had the exclusive right to vote money. The Public Accounts ■Committee was considering the Estimates and every item could be thoroughly discussed, but what a different state of affairs obtained regarding the War Expenses Account. With the war in its present stage, with Germany crumbling and Japan well away from the Dominion, it was an insult to the intelligence of the people that they should be told that for security reasons they could not be told frankly what that expenditure was. ; A much more serious aspect was that that sacred trust fund was being used for purposes that had no connection with the war. CIVILIAN PAYMENTS. It was being used to make all sorts of payments for the civilian community, and Ministers had the temerity to say that the position was met
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because the total amount of subsidies did not amount to more than the transfers from the Consolidated Fund. Transfers to the secret account could not be,defended. The truth was that the payments were being made behind closed doors to keep the information from the people, and to deny the taxpayers and the workers knowledge of what the actual cost of living was and the subsidies that were being paid to mushroom growths or so-called secondary industries that were being spoonfed. Mr. Bodkin said the Government had transferred the fertiliser and other subsidies from the Consolidated Fund to the War Expenses Account and no explanation had been given. It was obvious that the War Expenses Account was to be reimbursed with the farmers' money and the account would be caUed upon to pay those subsidies,
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19440901.2.36
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 4
Word Count
338WAR ACCOUNT "SACRED TRUST FUND" Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 4
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