Unions Threaten To Leave Conference

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31768, 27 August 1968, Page 1

Unions Threaten To Leave Conference

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON. August 26.

Trade union leaders represented on various committees of the National Development Conference are threatening to walk out of the conference on Wednesday.

A representative of the Food - Processing and Chemical Workers’ Union, Mr C. E. Davies, who is on three committees in the mineral development section of the conference, said today that the early release of information from the Targets Committee had made a mockery of the conference.

Rumours that the conference was a political gimmick for election year seemed to be true, Mr Davies said. If this were the case he and some of the other union leaders involved would walk out of the conference, Mr Davies said. "In common with other trade union leaders I accepted the principles of the conference as being of advan-

tage to New Zealand as a whole,” he said. “But in the face of the pre-release of conference decisions it seems the conference and the industry representatives are expected to rubber-stamp preconceived ideas .put forward by the Treasury at the instigation of the World Bank.” Some of the World Bank's ideas had been valid, but they had been mangled to suit the policy of the Government, Mr Davies said.

It was impossible to imagine major exploration and development in the minerals sector without overseas capital. Nor could the fishing industry hope to reach a fraction of its proposed targets without similar assistance, either from overseas or from the Government.

But the report of the targets committee said the money for development should not be borrowed from overseas, Mr Davies said. (Committee’s Report, P.U)