’A classic red herring’

Press, 4 August 1977, Page 6

’A classic red herring’

Parliamentary reporter

Assertions by the president of the Labour Party (Mr A. J. Faulkner) that Labour would win 19 seats from National in a General Election were described yesterday by the president of the National Party (Mr G. A. Chapman) as “a classic red herring, designed to divert attention from Labour’s own problems.”

“Mr Faulkner was obviously embarrassed by the involvement of present and former Labour members of Parliament in a public spectacle of Labour Party bloodletting in Auckland,” said Mr Chapman.

“The bitter confrontation between the sitting members, Messrs Isbey and Prebble, in Auckland Central; the fierce contest between Mr Moore and Mr Moyle in Papatoetoe, and Mr Hugh Watt’s challenge to the Onehunga member Mr Rogers, all create a spectacle that Mr Faulkner wishes to divert public attention away fron> by making exaggerated claims about seats that Labour could win. “The other reason for Mr Faulkner’s statement was his obvious wish to disguise the fact that Labour has a number of marginal seats in which it is at risk. Mr Faulkner’s own seat of Roskill, Mr Rowling’s seat of Tasman, Mr Connelly’s seat of Yaldhurst, and the seats of Papatoetoe, Manurewa, Onehunga, Mt Albert, Waitakere, and Mr Bailey’s seat of Heretaunga, where he made the claim, are all seats that Labour could lose in the 1978 General Election,” said Mr Chapman.