Voter registration cards urged

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 4

Voter registration cards urged

PA Wellington; Voters should be required i to register for General Elec-:' tions and present their reg's-' tration cards before casting I their votes, according to a: Lyttelton remit that will be presented to the National Party conference at Christchurch from July 27 to July; .30. The remit will be presented “in view of the need to protect the rights of voters casting legal votes,” and it will recommend that: — All eligible voters be required to register before a specified time before each election (failure tn do so would forfeit the right to vote); and that ) — on registration, a pocketsized registration card be supplied to each eligible voter, this card to be presented at the polling booth before a vote can be cast. Other remits which will be

discussed at the conference include calls for amendments to the Accident Compensation Commission Act; a West Coast recommendation that "modest quantities” of coal be exported; a Taupo call for a shift lowards indirect taxation at the expense of income tax; a call to emphasise the harm to New Zealand’s export trade by the Federation of Labour’s ban on trading with Chile; and several calls fo- the National. Partv to return to its private-enterprise philosophies. The Hamilton East, Gisborne. and Tarawei a branches will present a combined remit calling for a complete reappraisal of New Zealand's welfare system, while the Waitaki branch will ask for a reappraisal of the practical results of the application of the Human Righ s Commission’s edicts. The Waitakere branch and the Auckland women’s organ-

isation, which believe that ! the National Party is too i male-dominated for effective! ; survival, will call for acceptance of well qualified, compe- ; tent women as Parliamentary candidates in electorates I “where they have more than a token chance of success.” Abolition of the scheme i whereby all energy is sold at .similar prices will he ; called for by the Dunedin North branch. The branch I will also ask that charges I for each type of energy be tied to the cost of production land distribution. The Rangitikei and Pahia- | tua branches will ask for urgent action on “meaningful restructuring of the economy"; Invercargill wants the Government to review the Matrimonial Property Act, 1977; and Timaru wants strike action likely to harm the New Zealand economy ; declared illegal. I The conference will be I opened at 2.30 p.m. on July 127. The leader’s rally will be held that evening, before the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) flies to Lusaka for the Com- | monwealth Heads of Government meeting. ■ The conference will end at 11.30 p.m. on July .30, with lan address by the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Taiboys).