ESTIMATES UNALTERED

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21176, 27 July 1940, Page 6

ESTIMATES UNALTERED

When the common objective is the highest possible degree of efficiency there is much to be said for co-operative effort in Parliament, with an absence of delaying criticism. But when the action of the predominant party is wide open to criticism in certain aspects the danger of withholding action becomes apparent. All the circumstances of the present position in the House of Representatives point to the vital necessity of giving the Opposition representatives an active part in the formulation of policy, particularly with regard to public expenditure. Discussion of the Estimated has revealed that by condoning extravagant civil expenditure provided for in the Estimates the Opposition would be acting against the wishes of many thousands of people all over the country. Co-operation must be limited by the quality of the Government’s administration. If that administration is bad or extravagant it must be opposed in the country’s interest. That attitude, it must be emphasised, is confined to certain aspects of the Government’s policy—in particular its expenditure on public works. Every thinking elector knows perfectly well that a number of expensive works authorised in the Estimates could be abandoned or postponed while the war emergency lasts. Yet those millions are being ground through the parliamentary machine in defiance of the public’s obvious wish. The Ministers have utterly failed to justify a number of costly projects which have not the slightest connection with war-time efficiency, and yet the work is to go on. Ministerial justification for the expenditure on a number of works, notably the commercial broadcasting building and the new building for the Marketing Department at Auckland, has been extremely weak and unconvincing. The Hon. P. C. Webb was equally ineffective when defending his determination to proceed with the new Government printing works at Wellington. These expenditures can be postponed without undue hardship. Were the country at peace they would be desirable, and some possibly justifiable, but why persist with them, against the country’s wish, at the moment when the people are being driven to extraordinary lengths to find the wherewithal to pay their taxes ? The Government would earn the gratitude of the whole country if it frankly admitted its obvious mistake and put these alluring dreams aside, at least until New Zealand is sure that it has taken every possible step to defend what it has already built. Unless hundreds of thousands of electors are wrong, the Government is out of touch with the real needs of the hour in this respect.