COMMENT FROM THE CAPITAL NATIONAL HAVE NO CARROTS AS GENERAL ELECTION BAIT

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33858, 2 June 1975, Page 12

COMMENT FROM THE CAPITAL NATIONAL HAVE NO CARROTS AS GENERAL ELECTION BAIT

Bi

CEDRIC MESTIPLAY)

WELLINGTON, June I.—No carrots tor reluctant \oteis * ie J.ng extended by the National Party for the coming election. Instead, a National Government, taking over in November, would expet t t<nhe . a staggering deficit of at least -<l4OO million, a discouraged economy, a.. I a group of problems based on recession.

Already, one of Mr Mul- , boon's original "Young Turks” (Mr J. B. Gordon. ; Nat, Clutha) has promised I "tough and unpopular meas--1 ures that will hurt many sectors". He specifically ; mentioned farming, industry, and transport, but added j that the aim would be to restore the country to the level of stabilitv existing in ‘1971 • Hints of what these poL) iicies could be have come in ; from various sources. The list could includer(1) Devaluation of the j New Zealand dollar by as 'much as 10 per cent to I bring its level of value to a I point which could be maintained. (2) The imposition of a ■ complete block on immigra- ) tion. except on family and: i compassionate grounds: (3) The stabilisation of wages and prices by a system similar to that which held inflation to 5 per cent, in 1972. (41 The restoration of harmony in industry, starting

witn a workers unuui yu whether union membership should be voluntary or compulsory. (5) The turning-off of the flow of dual-citizenship migrants from the Cook Islands and Niue by an understanding with island leaders aimed at preventing the depopulation of the islands. (6) The building-up of confidence and liquidity by savings incentives and opportunities. When the Labour Government devalued by 9 per cent last September. Mr Muldoon maintained that this was not enough, because it did not reach a maintainable level of value. He believed then that a further 6 per cent (making a total devaluation of 15 per cent) would have sufficed then. Today the adjustment could be as much as 10 pet cent. Key to policy The preview of the National Party’s immigration policy, given by Mr Muldoon at the Auckland divisional conference of the party on May 17, has drawn fire from many directions, but generally because it has been incompletely understood. The key to the situation is that, though the Government’s restrictive policy on migrants is more than a year old, official figures show that for the -year ended March 31, the excess of permanent incoming migrants over permanent departures was still more than 29.000. “The first thing we must do is to cut immigration.” Mr Muldoon told me in a special interview. “This is essential because the migrant, on landing in New Zealand, incurs capital expenditure far in excess of what he brings in. He is entitled to a house, a job, education for his children, and so on. It will be many years before he and his children repay it in terms of production.” Mr Muldoon is sure that . migration would have to be 'stopped for two or three 'years, if only to allow New ; Zealand’s resources to catch I up. “It’s the quickest way to ■ solve the housing shortage. I You get 30,000 extra people a year and you’ll get a shortage of houses, no ntatj ter what Government is in I power.” His scheme of probationiary migration, which will I become National Party policy, is based on practices ; which have been the rule in , other countries for many ) years. “If you go to Britain, :if you don’t have a Britishborn grandfather, you can I stay a maximum of two I years. In any case, if you are working there, you have to renew a work certificate every six months. In the United States you cannot i even work unless you have 'a ‘green card.’ Other countries I “Most countries have I tougher regulations than our new ones — that is, the ones we propose to make. Inside the European Common Market they also have ; their rules. A citizen of one ! country can cross a border, I but people from outside Eurj ope are subject to tedious (restrictions.”

Mr Muldoon acknowledged that he had been criticised by leaders of racial minorities in the greater Auckland area. He defined a New Zealander as “someone who believes he is a New Zealander.” He may have an ethnic and cultural background as Scottish. Irish. Dutch. Yugoslav, Chinese. Ngapuhi. Ngati Porou. Rarotongan or Samoan. In his own mind he is one of these, or a mixture. but a New Zealander first of all. “It is the aim of National Party policy to emphasise the New Zealand way of life, a multicultural people living in harmony . . . reverting to our immigration policy: We are going to make it,’ as most countries do in their ways, a privilege to be a permanent resident of -New Zealand. It is as simple as that.”

On the probation idea Mr i Muldoon said: “At present Iwe are thinking of two years as the probationary period. The only grounds for exclusion for trouble in that period would be falling foul I of the law. This point has to be made. In any other coun- ; try, if a visitor commits an ) offence and is convicted, he is out on the next plane I “On our idea, nobody 'would be sent out of the country without first being convicted in a court of law. ;We could be a little tougher ■lon entry. In the past we | have let some bad ones tn-. ) possibly through neglect of j.some procedures alread', | there” j Special problem Mr Muldoon believes that ithe islanders,’ particularly I those of the Cook Islands 'and Niue, who have dual is- | lands-New Zealand citizenship, are a special problem 'The answer, he believes, lies in the fact that there are ;two ends to this problem. i “When I visited both I groups in October, I was horrified at the extent to . which the population is de- ) dining,’’ he said. “The ones liwho are going are all those I who are valuable to the , economy. There was only ! one qualified engineer in )) Rarotonga. On Niue, where there were 5000 people in I the late J. R. Hanan’s time J(a decade ago), only 3800 )now reside. . “The population of Niue is ; j dropping by 200 a year. The ;ones with initiative, skills, “education, won’t stay. The i) Cooks are in possibly worse ■i shape because there are so ,)many outer islands, which [are difficult enough to i; administer at the best of II times. If you’re left with th£ 11 kids, the old people and the ■ino-hopers, what a mess it’s i) going to be in a few years' litime.” I Mr Muldoon's way would 'be to talk with the two i Prime Ministers (Sir Albert 'Henry and Mr Robert Rex),' finance some island under- , I takings, and make sure the J people are there to operate “them. ) Other details of the Nat : . ional Party’s policy are “in “the pipeline,” but there is nb J intention of having a great, , 1 unwieldy bulk of policy ■ j points. There will be “just . those things we know are 'capable of being done ”