Nelson M.P. may consider resignation

Press, 29 August 1979, Page 1

Nelson M.P. may consider resignation

PA Wellington The Labour member of Parliament for Nelson, Mr M. F. Courtney, will discuss his future with the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) after a row which saw him walk out of a combined trades coun-cil-Labour electoral committee executive meeting in Nelson on Monday evening. Mr Rowling is on leave at his Richmond home and is not due to return to Wellington until tomorrow morning. Mr Courtney is expected to meet him before the Labour Party caucus meets later that morning. The row centred on statements made by Mr Courtney condemning the butchers’ strike earlier this year and supporting a bill by Transport Nelson, Ltd, to establish a jetfoil service across Cook Strait. The meeting called for an apology and retraction and wanted Mr Courtney

to give an assurance that he would not make such statements again. However, Mr Courtney, a Nelson supermarket owner, said yesterday he

felt the meeting was being “disrespectful.” “After an hour I left the meeting. It is something I have not done before, but it became in my view disrespectful and was asking something of me which was really quite impossible to give.” The meeting had wanted him to apologise to the Nelson Butchers’ Union for criticism of their 48-hour strike. At the time he had said he realised he was an interested party but felt he must speak out. It would cause “considerable losses,” Mr Courtney had said. Yesterday he said he had “thought hard and long” before he spoke out against the strike, but it was something he felt strongly about. He also rejected Nelson Labour Party criticism over his stand on the planned jetfoil service. He was supporting a local enterprise and the need for another lifeline

between the North and South Islands. However, this contrasted with a statement made two weeks later by Mr Rowling in Murchison, that party policy was for the Railways Department to become an independent corporation with a marine division running the Cook Strait service. Mr Courtney said yesterday the meeting had accused him of being on thp side of the employers. “They were saying, ‘Your friends the employers’, ‘Your associates the employers’.” He felt this to be disrespectful. He said he would not withdraw the remarks complained of. “I told them I had no intention of trimming myself to suit everybody because in the end I would be whittling myself away and I would be worth nothing. My credibility would be nil. “I believe that those two

statements that I made — whether they reject them or not — were the most well received statements that I have made in three and a-half years.” Mr Courtney said he did not believe the dissatisfaction expressed by the executives of the Labour electoral committee or the Nelson Trades Council reflected the views of the electorate at large. However, he acknowledged that unless he withdrew the remarks there was a possibility that the local Labour Party executive would not support his candidacy for the 1981 General Election. He refused to be drawn on the possibility of his resigning from Parliament. “Well, you’ve got to consider all aspects, don’t you, and that would be one of a number that I would have to consider.” The row had been brought to the attention of

the Federation of Labour and the New Zealand council of the Labour Party, but he considered it to be a local issue . “which has grown into a big issue simply because it has not been sorted out quickly enough.” In a joint statement, the chairman of the electoral committee, Mr R. Bingham, and the president of the Nelson Trades Council, Mr L. Sutherland, confirmed that there had been a difference of opinion between the council and Mr Courtney. “But we considered it a domestic matter within the Labour movement which we have been seeking to resolve internally,” they said. “We regret that the matter has now been made public but in spite of Mr Courtney’s leaving the joint meeting last night the door is still open for further discussion,” they said.