Hugh Shearer made a four-hour presentation to Parliament in which he criticised some of the proposals of the Government. Shearer also made a few proposals such as the right to maternity leave as well as an assistance programme for the poor.

Published May 5, 1976

Shearer opens Opposition reply in Budget Debate

WAGE SUBSIDY IN AGRICULTURE PROPOSED

To attract more workers, increase production

GLEANER PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER

A PROPOSAL to attract more workers and boost production by means of a wage subsidy in the agricultural sector was made by the Rt Hon Hugh Shearer in the House of Representatives yesterday as he opened the reply for the Opposition in the 1976-77 Budget Debate.

Mr Shearer proposed that the subsidy be financed by diverting some funds from the Crash Programme vote to assist in paying higher wages in selected agricultural crops for which there were guaranteed markets.

The suggestion came in a 14-point slate of Opposition proposals to the Government after Mr Shearer attacked the administration’s policies and performance in a speech lasting just under four hours.

Reviewing what he saw as “another dismal year of failures and a catalogue of crises”, Mr Shearer said the projections were for more grief and more suffering”. What was more serious, he said, was that there were “no provisions, no programme, no strategy” to correct the deterioration.

Outside the economic sphere, he dealt briefly with the problem of crime and violence, calling for a halt to Government speeches that put the blame on past administrations.

The approach could only exacerbate the problem, he said, suggesting that it was time for machinery to eliminate as far as possible the practices of victimisation, which was a root cause.

GUIDELINES CHANGES

Mr Shearer also attacked the Government’s wage and salary guidelines as “draconian measures against the workers”. As set out, the guidelines acceptable to the trade unions, he said.

Suggested changes to the guidelines led off the list of Opposition proposals to the Government.

Mr Shearer proposed that the guidelines be amended to accommodate wage increases for improved living standards and to allow free negotiation on the basis of productivity and profitability, with the deletion of the $10 limit to increases.

On the wage subsidy proposal, he said that one of the problems in the agricultural sector was the inability to meet guaranteed markets. He cited the case of bananas for which there was a market for 183,000 tons, which if filled, would earn the nation $34 million annually, yet production had fallen to just over 68,000 tons.

The Opposition was, therefore, proposing diverting some of the Crash Programme vote to help pay higher wages in agriculture.

Shearer said that the accounting could be done in N.I.S. returns, and adequate safeguards could be worked out against racketeering. This, he said, would be a better way of spending the Crash Programme vote than in the non-productive methods that had marked that programme, Mr Shearer said.

On the other proposals, he said that the Government should bring proposals to the House for assistance to the victims of criminal activity – the women and children left as victims of violence. He called for the implementation of proposals that had been contained in a parliamentary resolution insurance for policemen.

Shearer also called for the implementation of proposals to convert all weekly employees in the government service to pensionable status and for an amendment of the Widows and Orphans Act to provide better benefits for the widows and children of civil servants.

Another proposal was for the amendment of sick leave regulations to include the entitlement of women to maternity leave as of right, coupled with the right to the job at the end of the leave with all accumulated benefits impact.

Shearer called for the establishment of a programme of food assistance to the poor and unemployed.

A.M.C. shops alone were not the answer as they required cash purchases. A ticket system could be established with the scheme operating on a non-partisan basis.

Shearer proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture that a subsidy be arranged for the Monymusk sugar workers co-op, which faces water-supply costs of $34 per cubic yard a far more substantial cost than other areas.

He acknowledged the Government’s announcement about income tax relief proposals, which he said was part of an ongoing programme for rationalisation of the tax system. He urged in this connection that attention be paid to the scale of relief on house mortgages, which was last revised in 1974.

Shearer added two other tax proposals. He suggested that professional cricket and football be encouraged by income tax relief on subscriptions to approved clubs and projects for sports development. He called also for the exemption of the overtime and premium portion of wages from income tax.

Mined-out lands

On the final proposals, dealing with the distribution of mined-out bauxite lands, Mr Shearer referred to guidelines on the development of such lands that had been stated in a Ministry Paper tabled in the House in 1971.

He recommended that those guidelines be adopted so the people could have meaningful participation in the ownership of such lands.

Dealing with the Budget itself, Mr Shearer said that it was the submission of the Opposition that the size of the Budget in figures was misleading as the benefits would be less than last year which, in turn, had been less than the year before.

The Government’s own memorandum on the Budget had stated that in real terms, the Budget outlays would be significantly lower than the outlays for 1975-76.

He criticised what he said were reductions in vital areas such as agricultural crop research and fertilizer subsidy, and in pensions and social security.

Citing statistical reports tabled in the House, Mr Shearer said the figures showed minus growth of 2.3 per cent in 1975.

Although the country had been told last year of a 4.3 per cent growth, the refined figures showed that there had been growth of only one per cent in 1974.

The rate of growth at constant prices for the period 1972 to 1975 was a net 2.15 per cent as against an average 7 per cent under the previous Government.

Bureaucracy

The production statistics showed reduction in vital areas despite “all the scheme and the reams of A.P.I. propaganda”. The deteriorating production figures arose from the “crippling bureaucracy and an ideology alien and inefficient in our circumstances”.

And yet there was no strategy to correct the deterioration, Mr Shearer said.

The main point to be noted about the cost of living was that it continued to rise but at a slower rate, and the decreases that had been recorded in January and February this year had been reversed in March, partlythe  effect of the imposition of the new Consumption Duty Order.

What was happening was that the Government’s financial policies were crippling the economy and leading from one crisis to another. There was no growth, the tax base got smaller, and estimated tax collections were not achieved, leading to severe cutbacks in vital areas.

The Government had imposed $137.7million in taxation in four years as against $20 by the JLP Government in ten years. At that level of taxation, the previous Government had maintained higher economic growth and achieved better performance.

Improvements would only be possible if certain results were achieved, and the present policies were not conducive to the Labour Force Survey which showed an increase from 20.4 per cent to 21.2 per cent or, in absolute figures, an increase from 166,500 unemployed to 184,300.

Reduction

In the face of this, the Budget had reduced the provision for the Special Employment Programme from $53-million down to $39 million, which would involve an employment loss of some 8,000 full-time jobs.

Shearer urged the Government to take into consideration that any plans for increased production should consider also the welfare and security of the worker.

It was time, he said, that the whole question of job security be put before the Labour Advisory Council to determine what measures could be taken to institute such benefits as guaranteed annual pay in the hotel industry, for example.

With production down, cost of living up, tax levels unbearable, crime, negative growth and lack of confidence, balance of payments in a shambles, there was nothing in the Budget, the Throne Speech, or the presentation by the minister of finance to correct the grim circumstances of the country, Mr Shearer said.

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