Lange coup not likely at conference

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 2

Lange coup not likely at conference

By

CEDRIC MENTIPLAY

Though clarion calls to stand together against the encroachments of the National Government are expected to be a feature of the annual conference of the' Labour Party, which will begin today, there is un-l likely to be any change in| Labour’s own leadership. The most recent danger; appeared to be to the status' of Mr R. J. Tizard as deputyleader. Much of the rumour surrounds the new member! for Mangere (Mr D. R. Lange), who has immense popularity with the public, I as revealed by public opinion! polls. Much of the "Lange for leader” talk, however, takes' no cognisance of the facts of, Labour Party life. A solution may be to re-: place Mr Tizard with MrLange as deputy leader, thus giving him sufficient status! to facilitate a takeover in the near future. On the eve of the confer- i ence, Labour supporters are. tight-lipped about thi sissue.l but the odds seem to bej against it. Mr Lange, a lawyer, has answered questions by saying that no single Labour man has approached him I about the matter. However, he has failed to answer sub-' sequent questions about! whether a Labour bloc has

sought his support. On the other hand, a group including Messrs R. <). Douglas, (Manukau) and R. W. Prebble (Auckland Central) is pledged to Mr Tizard's support. The party’s president (Mr A. J. Faulkner) says he has no designs on the deputy leadership, and Mr W. W. Freer (Mt Al-j bert) has expressed surprise I at the rumour of a change. It must be remembered that' Mr E. E. Isbey challenged! Mr Tizard in January last! year. But, all in all. this is al caucus rather than a confer-, ence issue. The position Mr Rowling] as political leader seems as secure as ever. He is in the midst of a high-pressure personal campaign which has taken him throughout New Zealand and which shows no sign of flagging. In it there have been some signs of a more spontaneous, deeper human image, which has pleased many supporters and reassured others who have criticised his previous line of continuous querulous criticism. Generally, political Labour appears to have held its strength by comparison with industrial Labour. As usual, the annual conference of the Federation of Labour last week immediately preceded the Labour Party conference, but the danger of industrial control of this week's conference is not considered

great. The voting strength of. Labour Party branches is expected to dominate that of trade unions by about three to one. At last year’s conference the voting power of the: branches was expected to be about 630, compared with! the 370 of the unions. In the event, the margin was much greater. This year, the union vote! could be as high as 400, even though the 30,000-

strong Engineers Union is ; still standing out, and the jvoting power of the branches could be as high as ;'750. Far-sighted industrial Labour men, including Mr A. J. Neary, have called on industrial Labour to form close ranks with political Labour. It is significant that, at a . time when the Federation of ■ Labour could well have been considering itself “the voice and muscle of Labour,” the F.O.L. conference expressed ' its full confidence in Mr Rowling as leader of Labour ’ ( and “New Zealand’s future ! Prime Minister.” The comment of the Social Credit leader (Mr B. C. Beetham) is relevant at this point. He described the F.O.L. call to workers as a “plea from the past,” and said that a new wealthy and powerful class of trade 1 unionists had arisen, many of whom had transferred their I support to the National 'I Party. As often, this was a halfj truth Mr Beetham said I nothing about the farming and manufacturing groups i which transferred their support to Labour in 1972. ' Moves like this are seldom : publicised until after the event.

The Federation of Labour i does not appear in a strong . position this year to domin--1 ate the conference. Sir i Thomas Skinner is absent -'overseas, and the secretary s|(Mr W. J. Knox) will not! • (address the conference uns til Thursday. , Some remits will be discussed today, but most of ilthe time will be devoted to I ballots for the various execut'tive posts. The only change pbeing predicted is that Mr : Lange will be found a place on the executive. There are: [67 candidates for the five .positions. I As president, Mr Faulkner iis being challenged by Messrs J. P. Anderton and S. ! McCaffley, neither of whom ! is favoured; the senior vicepresident (Mr J. A. Walding) ■ is being challenged by a j Christchurch city councillor. .(Mrs Mollie Clark, and bv Mr '•C. R. Marshall, M.P. Mrs 'I Clark also has a challenge in L; for the junior vice-presi-Jdency, held by Mr M. K. J Moore, -and for the post of j one of the two women's re- ; presentatives (for which there are 25 applicants). . The remits are divided, ‘into 25 composite sections. ’ many having a wider number '■of options. The conference; ; will spend most of the week : ■ working through these. The ; result could have an import- 1 1 ant bearing on priorities for : the Labour manifesto, which 1 will be completed soon.