Change seen in Socred’s outlook

Press, 28 August 1978, Page 2

Change seen in Socred’s outlook

PA Wellington After years of backing free sports contacts with South Africa, the Social Credit conference decided on Saturday to accept the “concept” of the Gleneagles! Agreement. "This represents a considerable change in principle, and a compromise with complete freedom of sporting association,” said Mr Glover (Papanui) after the vote. In each of the last two years the conference has rejected remits from Mr Glover to promote snorts contacts with South African sports associations only on a non-racial basis. “I was surprised, but there has been a considerable change in the whole outlook at this conference. Delegates are far more sophisticated and progressive than they were in the past,” he said. The chairman of the workshop which dealt with the remit, the Auckland East coordinator, Mr P. Goldsmith, also said he was surprised that there was no debate on th" subject. But he pointed out that Social Credit’s leader, Mr B. C. Beetham, had accepted the Gleneagles Agreement earlier this year. The remit proposing acceptance of the agreement was sponsored by the party’s policy committee and was amended by the workshop only to support the

"concept” rather than the ■ agreement itself. I This meant that the party believed that South Africa was not the only country at , fault. i | However, the workshop I rejected as “unworkable” I (by 13 votes to 8) an amendI ment to say that governments should ‘‘in like manner discourage sporting con- I tacts with governments which deprive their citizens I of basic human rights.” "We all know about I Uganda and the Soviet Union. The feeling of dele- 1 gates was that these coun- i tries’ actions as far as free- i dom is concerned are abhorrent,” said Mr Goldsmith. I I But when the remit came up on the full conference I floor, after Mr Goldsmith read the text of the Glen- s eagles Agreement, there were only two speakers. , When a voice vote was i taken there was some dis- ■ sent, but there was over- i whelming support for the 1 remit as proposed. Social Credit’s 1975 manifesto stated: “While we believe all teams should be selected on merit or ability, i we should accept teams sent i by countries according to their own laws knowing full well that in every country < people work to change laws.” i But the Gleneagles Agreement says that every Com- ) monwealth government ■ would do whatever it can < within its own laws to dis- 1

courage sports contacts with South Africa. A teturn to traditional values was called for by the deputy leader of the Social Credit League, Mr Jeremy Dwyer. In a keynote speech Mr Dwyer said many school principals had told him it was common for as many as 30 to 40 per cent of their schools’ pupils to come from broken or disturbed homes. The level of suicides in New Zealand was, he said, “the highest in the world.” Drug-alcohol abuse was spreading, and one in 10 New Zealanders required care in a psychiatric hospital. Nearly a fifth of the babies bom in 1977 were bom outside marriage; child abuse was on the increase. Rising juvenile delinquency among Maoris was “a reflection of the tremendous weakening of Maori social and family forms,” said Mr Dwyer. What was needed was not “social security” but “family security,” to insulate the family unit from “the immense pressures and demands being placed upon it through the pulse and machinations of a very sick economy.” “We need to return to and strengthen traditional patterns and values which have proved themselves, and which are now being seriously undermined,”- Mr Dwyer said.