National would offer country 'integrity’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 16

National would offer country 'integrity’

The National Party would offer New Zealand integrity, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Muldoon) told the Lyttelton National Party at a dinner in Christchurch last evening.

There would be no! extravagant promises, ' he said. Mr Muldoon said that the , present Government had mis- i, managed the country, and ‘ public dissatisfaction was showing in a swing towards I National, which according to a poll this week was ahead : of Labour by 11 per cent. New Zealand was about , slsoom in aebt. Total export income for 1974 was just more than sl6oom. “Put this alongside our total export income and you ca nsee that roughly we have spent four years income in three years.

“We certainly do not solve this problem by borrowing, particularly at roughly 10 per cent. “On top of that we have to repay a further 15 per cent after our devaluation.” The private importer was carrying a very substantial burden and some of New Zealand's larger companies had. through devaluation, lost millions of dollars which, at the present time, were not tax-deductible. “If we could not leave this country- in much better shape than when we took it over. I would say that the next National government had failed.” he said.

“I believe the Labor: • Party is incapable of provid ing a Government that can meet this challenge.” The National Party in power would preserve “those things which its people valued as the New Zealand wav of life.” At the present time this mean restricting immigration, and the destructive effects of industrial development on the natural environment. PROTECTION It would protect individual freedoms, "the right to set up in business, the right to play, and to engage lin sporting contest wjth I whomever we chose, wherever we chose.” Any New Zealander would be protected from victimisation by any organised group, whether employers or trade unions.

Mr Muldoon said that he did not think that the deceased Labour leader (Mr Kirk) would win the forthcoming election if he were alive. “It was a fact that there was no-one to touch him as leader of the Labour Party and the fact that he has gone does not make that any the less true,” he said. The Labour Party had a verv small central group of ■ordinary New Zealanders iwho joined the party I branches. | National’s strength, however. came from something like 175,000 ordinary members, every one of them a ;volunteer. Mr Muldoon said.