Speaking To Candidates

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32117, 13 October 1969, Page 15

Speaking To Candidates

Hr

K. D. Coates

A. (L McEwen Labour Riccarton

After 17 years in the Post Office, Mr A. C. McEwen left because he did hot relish his future being mapped but for him even though it was assured. Now as Labour candidate for Riccarton, ids future, politically at least, is far from assured as the • electorate now takes in 40 per cent of Fendalton. But according to 39-year-old Alan McEwen, what attracts him to politics is the changes that occur. “I get intense satisfaction from change, and politics is far from static,” he said. Asked what specific talents he had to offer as a potential M.P., Mr McEwen said this was a difficult question to answer—he was not given to talking about his own qualities. “But I do have an intense feeling of wanting to play some active role in the community and I am a humanitarian at heart, ’ he added. “And the basic reasons for this are, I suppose, emotional.” At present he is working on night shift in a cable factory as a machine operator so he can be free during the day for electioneering. Mr McEwen, married with two children, represents the attempt of the Labour Party to widen its view in choosing candidates. Clean-cut, well-spoken,' owner of an attractive home set in trees and shrubs in Sockburn, modern car in the drive-way, he presents an “acceptable” image. He says that indirectly it was Mr Keith Holyoake who set him thinking about taking part in.politics. “He was- one of the speakers at a training course I attended while with the Post Office,” he said. “He spoke on community responsibility and the need ef all to play some part in politics.” And he hastened to add that the late Sir Walter Nash was another speaker at the course. Mr McEwen said he had been active in the Labour Party for nine years and this included acting as campaign organiser for the last two elections and holding office in the local Labour Representation Committee and branch. Noting that he recalled having voted for the- National Party at one election, I asked Mr McEwen what the essential difference is between National and Labour. “Basically it is a social difference,” he said. “The National Party has been able to sell the idea that anyone can be a millionaire. Many thousands of workers think they could become millionaires, and there is nothing wrong with that I would like to see more in New Zealand like Sir James Wattie. “But usually in attaining their millions people have disregarded human beings. So in the final analysis, the Labour Party believes people are the most important subject for governments, not wealth, or personal wealth.” Asked whether he believed that people setting out to make money necessarily would tend to disregard the welfare of human beings, Mr McEwen said that the party "leader, Mr Kirk, had made a point which perhaps answered this. He had said, When commenting on an honours list, that a woman who had brought up 60-odd foster children was more deserving of honour than a canner of beans. There was no nutshell answer to the basic difference between the parties, he said. But Labour felt imports should be controlled to maintain full employment He said he did not believe in the “class struggle” and agreed that expan-

sion in secondary industry was necessary for New Zealand. And this would involve people setting out to make money. Labour did offer government in-depth, he said. Asked to elaborate, be said the National Party had an insufficient crosssection of representatives. They had the same sort of backgrounds and traditionally represented farming and business interests. Labour was more academic in flavour and representative of the wage and salary earner. “You name it and we’ve got it,” he said. Mr McEwen says the social security framework is acceptable, but benefits for special groups should be increased, especially the aged. He has an interesting slant on the reasons for apathy among electors. The average wage and salary earner today, he said, was so busy at his work, at home on his house and section, and on school committees and other community activities, that ail this was a drain on his ability to play a part in politics. “There is also not sufficient glamour in politics, whereas there is in Jaycees for instance,” he added. “There are many mundane functions to be carried out in politics at the grassroots level which gives not actually a stigma, but an unfavourable feeling in Hie minds of people.” Mr McEwen agreed that the Labour Party in assessing merit party style laid considerable emphasis on what had been done in the party. “And this is always the criterion, whether it is Professor Keith Sinclair or Alan McEwen,” he commented. Of the attitude towards politicians, he said he had been disillusioned and the average attitude was “very sad.” He knew, for example, the tremendous amount of work done by Mr M. A. Connelly, M.P., for his electorate. “But irrespective of how hard he works it seems to be considered that he is not worth his salary.” He agreed that in a sense an M.P. became a household utensil because of his closeness to the people. “There has to be some more sophisticated structure for M.P.s—perhaps some secretarial assistance,” Mr McEwen said. “But who would draw the line between what function is attended and what is not, between who the M.P. deals with personally and who he does not?” Asked about the problems of Maoris, Mr McEwen said he would not like to see any special emphasis on Maori education. There was no special problem and he noted a tendency to dissociate the Maori from the community and say he had problems that the European had not got “I don’t believe this,” said Mr McEwen. “There could be isolated pockets in the North Island with problems, but they also apply to some people in the European community.” Young people, he says, are quick to single out- emotional issues. Generally, they don’t see problems in society as the family man sees them. Mr McEwen would go along with lowering the voting age to 18, but not the age for legalised drinking. During the election campaign he hopes to reach the greatest number of electors by door-todoor calls. The biggest problem he has met so far is the high cost of living. People were making ends meet through overtime and by both husband and wife* working, he said.