P.M's stocks low, says Mr Muldoon

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33579, 6 July 1974, Page 14

P.M's stocks low, says Mr Muldoon

- The stocks of the Prime Minister (Mr Kirk) had never been lower than at present, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr Muldoon) said last evening.

He was speaking at a National Party meeting in the Rakaia electorate. "If there was nothing else that would make the people of New Zealand say ‘we have had enough’, it would be the kind of performance we have had this week where a man 1 regard as a most dangerous man in industrial affairs in New Zealand because he is intelligent. ruthless, and single-minded went to gaol for holding up New Zealand: industry and negotiated while 1 in gaol with the president of] the Federation of Labour on ! behalf of the New Zealand: Government.” said Mr Muldoon. "When the president of the federation can go into the gaol and say ‘get your people back to work and I am sure I can get the law changed’ then we no longer have a responsible Government.

“The stocks of Mr Kirk have never been lower. There was a tremendous tide of good will for Mr Kirk and the Labour Party in the first months after the last election. but it has all disappeared,” Mr Muldoon said. When asked by a member of the audience whether the National Party could come to terms with unions if it were returned to power, Mr Muldoon said he thought it could. ’Union-basher" He said he was held to be a “bit of a union-basher” but he was really often only saying what people thought but were afraid to say. There were thousands of people who in no way backed or

encouraged what the unions did. but because of the net-; work of protective rules enveloping union offibers there was no way that they could be unseated.

The ways of unions were totally undemocratic, Mr Muldoon said. If some brave person tried to break in on the organisation, it was not just numbers that he was up against, it was the system. He said that he corresponded with Mr John A. Lee, "who in old age has become a very wise and rather conservative observer of the New Zealand scene. “He had the idea a year or so ago that the conflict of

the future will not be between the capitalist and the worker. That fight has been fought and won years ago. ‘The battle’ “The battle of the future won’t be for the Welfare State. The battle of the future will be between the Welfare State and the wildcat unions. Unless they are dealt with or curbed they will destroy the Welfare State.. “The wealth on which the Welfare State is built will be destroyed by the actions of one man for a cause which has no merit whatsoever,” said Mr Muldoon.