“GREAT ILLUSION”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1938, Page 7

“GREAT ILLUSION”

MR POLSON ON SECURITY SCHEME NEED FOR SOUND FINANCIAL FOUNDATION (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “Will the people of this country bless the name of a Prime Minister' who launches a scheme like this and then lets it crash to the ground because its foundations are not secure?” asked Mr W. J. Polson (Opposition, Stratford), during the second reading debate on the Social Security Bill in the House of Representatives yesterday. “Surely the Opposition is not asking too much,” Mr Polson added, “in insisting that the scheme shall be based on a sound foundation.” Mr Polson said it was foolish to go ahead with the scheme unless it was certain that the economy of the country could stand it and that it could be carried to permanent/ success in the years that lay ahead. “We want to know how this scheme can be financed in a sound way,” he continued. “The Prime Minister asked us whether we would repeal the scheme and if we would make that an election issue. I would say that we will certainly improve it, and we will accept his challenge to make that an election issue. There is no need under this plan or any other, to burden the finances of the country to provide for those who can very well provide for themselves”

Referring to the position of young people, Mr Polson asked what would happen to a young man who would start to contribute to the scheme at the age of 16. If he was a lad of spirit he would be looking forward to getting on in the world, and would be hoping to provide for himself. He would neither seek nor desire the services the Government’s scheme would offer him, but in any case he would have only a 10 per cent chance of reaching the age at which he would receive the benefits. It was not suggested that the young people were not willing to rpake some sacrifices, but they were being asked to make an unequal sacrifice under a system that lent itself to abuse. “I have been told by a well-qualified officer that unemployment services in New Zealand at the present time are costing £125/000 a week, or £500,000 a month,” Mr Polson said. “Admittedly it is now winter, but that averages out at about £6,500,000 a year, and surely the Government will have to take that into consideration when considering the financing of the social security scheme. The whole trouble is that the Government is building up a great illusion, but before long the country is bound to be disillusioned.”