Media Release

Sunday 13 October 2008

DSC monetary policy would save DHBs millions

Democrats for Social Credit (DSC) monetary policy would save DHBs millions of dollars on such projects as replacing or renovating hospitals, according to Party Leader Stephnie de Ruyter. This is just one example of how the New Zealand taxpayer would have huge debt burdens removed by taking loans away from finance arrangements involving usurious interest charges and having the loans issued at low or even zero interest by the New Zealand Reserve Bank, as was done by the first Labour government to get this country out of the Great Depression, she said.

DSC health spokesman David Tranter raises further questions such as the current methods of costing hospital buildings and compares this with the experience of a South Otago community who took over their local hospital/rest home for the frail elderly in 1991 from the Otago Area Health Board. According to the OAHB the cost of bringing the buildings up to legal standards would be as high as $1.5 million but the community did it for a tenth of that figure by using local tradesmen and applying common sense instead of taking the inflated figures provided by consultants who have a vested interest in making these projects more expensive than they need to be, Mr. Tranter said.

The far more stringent earthquake regulations currently being applied throughout New Zealand also raise questions around the ability of our entire society to up-grade public buildings, he said. Again comparing present-day situations with the South Otago experience, our local hospital committee was led to believe that the hospital buildings carried a substantial earthquake risk yet when, as the hospital committee secretary, I obtained the relevant reports I found that the risk was of the order of a tiny percentage likelihood of a small earthquake once every 60 years and was finally admitted by the local authorities to be insignificant. Further, when the local tradesmen started work on the buildings they found them to be so solidly constructed that they were unable, for example, to run new plumbing through the massive foundations and had to place pipes around the building, Mr. Tranter said.

The Democrats for Social Credit point to all the other projects such as those by district councils which are currently funded by high interest-bearing loans as a part of the appalling debt burden placed on New Zealanders' shoulders and which currently amounts to approximately $100,000 per head for every man, woman and child, Ms de Ruyter said. It is high time to throw out the iniquitous monetary system which has this - and most other countries - held in financial slavery by a rapacious financial system which has been licensed by successive New Zealand governments when they could equally well licence the Reserve Bank to provide finance for public projects at minimal or zero interest, she concluded.

ENDS

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