Speaking to candidates

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 20

Speaking to candidates

(Ken G>ates)

LYTTELTON

The sitting Labour Party member, Mr T. M. McGuigan, will be opposed by a radio announcer, Mr J. P. C. Blumsky, candidate for the National Party, in the Lyttelton electorate.

This will be one of the most interesting contests to watch, with campaigning by two active and articulate main party candidates. Mr McGuigan’s majority in 1369 was 292.

The Social Credit candidate is Mr J. Pounsford, freezing worker and union secretary, who has stood four times for Sydenham for his party. The New Democrat Party candidate, rubber worker, Mr R. R. Scarth, has made his position clear and says he is only standing so his party can have 87 candidates and thus gain television time.

The Values Party is also putting up a candidate— Mr J. Hilton, aged 24, a scientist employed by the New Zealand Forest Service.

Mr Tom McGuigan, M.P., believes in what he calls taking politics to the people. He considers electorate work, during which he has come into contact with many people, to have been the most rewarding part of his work as a Parliamentarian. “I believe in going to the people; I don’t expect them to come to me,” he says. “They can discuss things more freely in their own kitchen or sitting-room.” Mr McGuigan says he makes a point of writing a letter to every bereaved person in his electorate and offers help if needed. To the cynical, who might dismiss this as acting with an ulterior motive, he says it is one way 6f establishing contact with people and indicating that, as their elected representative, he is interested in their welfare. “On the national scene I get the greatest satisfaction from letters I receive from all over the country — they write to me on everything from birdlife on the Chatham Islands to lack of education facilities for their children.” Asked what he sees as main issues, Mr McGuigan mentions housing: “It is easy for those of us satisfactorily housed to be satisfied, but tens of thousands of young people are finding it almost impossible to house themselves. Surprisingly also many elderly and middle aged are inadequately housed.” Care of the aged, the rundown of hospital and health services, the cost of living and unemployment are other issues he views as being of concern to people. “At the end of 1971, 8000 young people decided to return to school this year because they could not get jobs, and with 50,000 leaving this year, one can only be disturbed over their prospects,” he says. Mr McGuigan says Government action to phase out import restrictions is already adversely affecting industry throughout New Zealand. In the South Island, this, coupled with the drift to the north, is particularly serious, he adds. One area in which Mr McGuigan has been prominent during the last three years has been the news media. He explains this merely by stating that he speaks on issues that affect people. He refers earnestly to people facing redundancy, of the environment, of the port of Lyttelton facing problems. GIVING A LEAD “All this goes back to my training and previous management of a hospital when details were so important,” he says. “I have always had to be on the ball and get things done.” And modestly he adds: “If publicity attended these efforts, it has not been consciously done.” In Mr McGuigan’s book there are plenty of issues before the people, but he says, “in so many cases, it is necessary for someone to give a lead. People know of actions pending and plans proposed, but don’t always know how to go about taking action. “I accept that a Parliamentarian is a leader in the community and I endeavour to lead.” Based on the 1969 majority, Mr McGuigan sees Lyttelton as a marginal seat, but he point out that the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Kirk, had held the seat for 12 years and moved to Sydenham — a

factor which reatced against the new member. He says he was also comparatively unknown.

Naturally enough Mr McGuigan is forecasting an increased majority and he claims this will be in the four figures. He gives the impression of taking his responsibilities to electors seriously. And he sees people in the electorate as making up a number of different communities, each with differing needs with which he is familiar.

For example, he says his aim for Lyttelton is to restore coastal shipping to a viable sendee, and to press for extension and rebuilding of the graving dock to ensure engineering plants have adequate work. He mentions the Estuary problem, provision of a secondary school in southeast Christchurch, the environment and the protection of living conditions in places like Governor’s Bay “where suddenly the area is shattered by plans of a developer who wants 80,000 people living there.” These and many other issues are questions on which the M.P. for Lyttelton makes it his business to be informed and actively involved with. Just how effective he is will be for electors to judge.

If there is one thing that makes the broadcasting personality, John Blumsky, indignant, it is to tell him he talks like a Labour rather than a National candidate. “Since when,” he asks, “has concern for people and their needs been the sole prerogative of any party?” He tells of the hundreds of people who telephoned him and wrote to him after his popular “Town Talk” programmes, and of his counselling off the air. They wanted homes, they had marriage and personal problems — “in fact, I took Over the functions of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau,” he says. “They told a total

stranger their personal problems. “No-one was listening any more; I did what I could, got hold of the big guys at the State Advances or whatever. I gave comfort, told them there was always some-one else in greater difficulty and that they would need to help themselves.” As John Blumsky sees it. then, this is an indictment against society. Government departments, he says, do not link in with the community in the way thev should. There is not suffi-

cient automatic explanation given. “Take the Lansdowne Valley sub-station issue — the Electricity Department admits now that not enough publicity was given to the reasons behind the decision. “And an elderly person of 70 who goes to the Social Welfare Department maybe doesn't know what she is entitled to. And she is not going to discuss personal details with a 16 or 17-year-old girl behind the counter.”

Asked what he would do, if elected, as a back-bench M.P., Mr Blumsky said: “I would be able to do a damned sight more than before—by yelling. I know publicity and how it works.

"And I don’t mean that it would be puff—just getting publicity in order to keep my name before the public. When I yell I will have something to yell about.” Aged 43, John Blumsky is of Polish descent. His great-grandfather, he says, arrived at Lyttelton aged 25 aboard a ship called the Freda Borger as an escapee from the Franco-Prussian war. He worked as a shepherd and labourer; his name was Jablinski, changed later to Blumsky.

John Blumsky’s father was a motor mechanic at one time employed by the Grey County Council. He lived his early boyhood in Greymouth, and at 13 the family shifted to Nelson, where he went to Nelson College. He joined the N.Z.B.C. in 1954, after a period selling insurance, and worked in Greymouth, Nelson, Dunedin, in the North Island and came to Christchurch two years and a half ago.

He points to the National Party having candidates, “ranging from retired admirals to retired trade unionists; men with considerable sums of money in the bank to those ‘who haven’t got a split pea, like me.’ ” He explains that he joined the National Party earlier this year when it became more liberal.

“This happened when Mr Marshall became Prime Minister —we are campaigning on a slogan, people first. This would never have happened under Holyoake.”

Asked what he sees as the major need in New Zealand, Mr Blumsky says: “New Zealanders need to develop a tolerant, critical attitude, based on as wide a field of

information as possible ” He describes himself as no plastic person. "I am a humanist, interested in people. I am no conveyor belt politician. “1 will be whipped into shape no doubt, but I’ll go down screaming.” John Blumsky does not talk like a politician. He says he fears he may have upset some of the blue ribbon supporters of the party in Cashmere. He talks of crossing the floor of the House on an issue he feels deeply about, such as abortion, if it became necessary, but adds: “I can't imagine many occasions under Jack Marshall when my right to be an individual’would be denied.” It is with an air of optimism that he refers to the 292 majority by which the seat is held, and estimates 6000 new voters in the electorate.

The political slogans of Mr Joe Pounsford have become a familiar part of the suburban scene in Sydenham over the years. But this time he will be contesting the Lyttelton seat for Social Credit. This makes the fifth time he has stood for Parliament. With Mr Pounsford, freezing worker and secretary of the C.F.M. Belfast sub-branch of the Freezing Workers’ Union, Social Credit is something akin to a religion. “I believe it is right for the country, and will always strive to do my utmost to achieve monetary reform,” he says. “A great many of our problems, social as well as economic, would be solved if New Zealanders had the opportunity to establish a sound financial system." Mr Pounsford does not make any extravagant claims about the outcome of his candidature in Lyttelton, but says Social Credit is in good heart. “We will hold the line and keep our policies in front of the people," he adds. “I am convinced that at the 1975 election we will do even better and will be a force to be reckoned with.”