S.P.U.C. hits back

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 7

S.P.U.C. hits back

PA Wellington The pro-life movement in New Zealand, and its leaders, are under attack by “a small coterie of M.P.s and a hostile news media,” according to the president n( the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (Mr J. D. Dalgety) at the weekend.

He told a dinner gathering of Roman Catholic doctors that the attacks were ‘‘of the worst kind.”

Mr Russell Marshall, M.P., and a television reporter, Simon Walker, were involved in an attack on the Minister of Health (Mr Gill), he said. The particular matter had since been settled in Parliament, with the Opposition joining the Government in accepting a secretary’s statement that he had distributed a letter by genuine mistake, but no apology had followed from Mr Marshall or Mr Walker. “They should apologise,” said Mr Dalgety. “They should not get away with this.”

The first victim of the general vendetta had been Dr G. A. Wall, M.P., who had been attacked by the media and certain other members for two years, because he was a man of compassion and principles, a Catholic, and someone who had set out to protect the unborn child. The harm was obvious, said Mr Dalgety. By rights, Dr Wall should be the Opposition’s spokesman for health, but he had paid the penalty for standing up to the “trendy brigade” in Parliament.

The attack had turned to the Minister of Health when he had set out to protect the unborn child, said Mr Dalgety. Miss Marilyn Waring had distributed a paper in the Government caucus, urging the party to ignore Catholic opinion and woo Values voters. This was timed to embarrass the Minister, who was carrying through Government policy on the Hospitals Amendment Act The media had attacked Mr Gill, crowed over his “defeat” when the

measure was deferred, and lionised Mr Gair for his “political expediency” in the debate.

Then came suggestions on TVI that Mr Gill was being “covered up” over the “circulation in error” of a letter in the House. Mr Marshall made himself available for an interview by Mr Walker, and made a “snide” attack on the Minister, when he had said he could not help but come to the conclusion that “perhaps some, M.P. may have done this, and the secretary used to take the rap.” Mr Walker enlarged on the theory.

The suggestion that Mr Gill was a coward, who would have his secretary take the blame for his action, was the “worst attack on a member’s integrity in recent political times,” said Mr Dalgety. He said the reaction to the Minister’s ending a 10-year-old appointment of a consultant to the Health Department led to an attack in Parliament in which Mr Jonathan Hunt suggested the reason for the dismissal was that the consultant was “ideologically opposed” to the Minister. This was clearly a suggestion that a religious outlook came into it, a move to hurt Mr Gill and the pro-life movement, he said. The Anglican Dean of Dunedin (Dean Mills) had put Mr Marshall in his place earlier after an attack on S.P.U.C. tactics, said Mr Dalgety. The 20,000 members who marched or joined in services in September would not be denied, he said, saying that Mr Warren Freer had attacked him in Parliament by notice of motion “to embarrass me as leader of S.P.U.C., and the movement generally.” He told the doctors: “Sup port men like Wall and Gill, Muldoon and Connelly, because they are men of principle, who will never compromise.” Mr Dalgety*s allegation that Mr Marshall was involved with Simon Walker in an attack on the Minister of Health, was refuted by Mr

Marshall in Wanganui last night

Mr Dalgety “should have done his homework better,” said Mr Marshall.

“I have been making a sincere attempt since the last abortion debate to establish some common ground with the more moderate and reasonable elements of S.P.U.C.” he said. “Mr Dalgety’s outburst will do more harm than good to his cause, and many people will regret that.” His own involvement over the letter from Mr Gill’s office was not the reason for the publicity about it, said Mr Marshall. National party backbenchers fed the story to the media, he said.