Govt ‘putting country right’

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 12

Govt ‘putting country right’

The National Party had had a huge mess to clean up but by the next election New Zealand would be back on the right road to economic growth, an audience at the Workers Education Association was told by a National Party candidate in the 1972 General Election, Mr Gordon Thomas. Mr Thomas was the second speaker in a series, "One down, two to go”, which aims to evaluate the performance of the Government after its first year in office.

The speakers were expected to put forward a personal point of view. Mr Thomas is a Christchurch businessman. He told the audience that he did not support capitalism or communism, but rather the social democratic type of government New Zealand had. Both main parties were of this kind, he said — he supported the National Party because it was the more efficient.

In 1972 the Labour Party had come to power with

huge reserves, an unemployment rate of 0.4 per cent. It had promised it would reduce the crime rate and cut back inflation.

Instead it had "mollycoddled” criminals, installing colour television sets for them in prisons, he said. Inflation had risen from a promised 4 per cent to 16 per cent and the reserves of the country had been squandered. In the last month of the Labour Party’s term of office the trade deficit had been $995M, but National had reduced this amount to S7I6M. His figures were from an impeccable source, said Mr Thomas. He had obtained them from the National Party.

The National Government had also introduced wage and price controls, had cut the subsidies on bread, milk, and other commodities, and cut immigration from 33,000 a year to less than 10,000 a year.

There might be some who thought that the unfortunate people from the South Pacific

should be given a better chance. Mr Thomas said thr t he was not a racist, but he saw New Zealand as an outpost of civilisation in the South Pacific and preferred to see immigrants from West, em European countries. The Government’s policies on sport were defended by Mr Thomas. The Government was not pro-apartheid, it was fiercely pro-sport. "It made a little mistake” over these sporting contacts, but Mr Talboys had been man enough to admit it, said Mr Thomas. Tire Government had moved to control broadcasting because the three networks were almost bankrupt, and most young men in broadcasting were irresponsible to think that money grew on trees. He knew it did not, said Mr Thomas. He knew two persons in television. Both were “very far to the Left” and he thought this was true of most of them. There were one or two other side issues on broadcasting, he said, but the main reason for the new act was to bring control back

into the hands of the taxpayer. The Government had scrapped the inter-is!an<t ferry because it had been losing S3M a year. It was grossly overmanned. If theLabour Government had been so concerned about the fate of the Rangatira, it would have cut down on the number of crew. When asked why the National Government had not done so, Mr Thomas said that he thought the position had deteriorated so much in the three years it was not possible. Mr Muldoon was a patriot, who loved his country and every single New Zealander, said Mr Thomas. He certainly was not a “fascist pig.” Mr taiboys was a Christian gentleman, as were Messrs Gordon, Maclntyre, Gair and the others. He did not want to resort to name calling as the Labour Party had done, but said that Mr Rowling was “an abominable no man” who lacked “intestinal fortitude.” But he was a Christian, Mr Thomas said.