The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1972. Labour stands on its 1969 policy

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33062, 1 November 1972, Page 16

The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1972. Labour stands on its 1969 policy

When the leader of the Labour Party (Mr Kirk) faced a disappointed party conference in 1970 he assured delegates that Labour’s 1969 election platform had been a good one. Although the manifesto had failed to tip the electoral balance sufficiently in favour of the Labour Party, few delegates seemed to disagree with him. Since then, there has been increasing pressure from within the party to persuade the leadership to adopt more radical policies, even if at the cost of some electoral support Labour’s policy planners have preferred to try to win more of the middle ground that separates the parties and to ignore the radical fringes of socialism. Like the National Party, Labour stands on its politically moderate undertakings of 1969. The greater part of the 1969 manifesto has been reprinted; some parts, such as the sections on education and social welfare, have been revised and augmented to take account of suggestions from the Labour conferences; a section on the control of the environment is wholly new. The Labour statement does not go much further than the Government’s actions and Tecent announcements on environmental management—except for the Labour Party’s plans for a Ministry of Recreation and Sport If neither of the main parties can claim any clear advantage in this field, at least the public have cause for satisfaction that there is bipartisan agreement on its fundamental importance.

Since 1969 Labour has dropped its clear-cut plan for the total acquisition by a purchasing authority of all wool for export; it has apparently dropped the idea of a two-tier Cabinet; it has cautiously approved the “ management ” of the South Island beech forests; and it approves the farming of fresh-water fish—except trout.

Policy on law and order is virtually unchanged except for the addition of a promise to overhaul the legal aid systems, to consider setting up “small “claims courts,” and to have “youth development “ centres ” rather than “ rigorous and spartan correc“tive work camps” for selected offenders. Labour favours “a reasonable date” for the withdrawal of New Zealand forces from Malaysia and Singapore, and promises recognition of the People’s Republic of China — without reference to Taiwan. A third medical school is promised in a health policy that remains unchanged in its essentials.

But these are not the items in the policy that, for most electors, will distinguish it from that of the Government These are to be found in the sections dealing with taxation, investment prices, and trade. As in 1969, the party promises to rely on economic growth to produce the increased tax revenue required for extra spending by the State, and to rely on extra savings, encouraged by taxation incentives, to finance development from an enlarged public debt There is no mention of price control; “price supervision” is the preferred term. And a promise to hold the charges on Government services for three years will certainly appeal to consumers— If not to the taxpayers who will eventually have to foot the bill for a succession of heavy Budget deficits.