S.L divorce ‘silly’ – P.M.

Press, 6 May 1980, Page 1

S.L divorce ‘silly’ - P.M.

Wellington reporter

The South Island Movement is "a nonsense,” according to the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon). “There’s been a lot of talk about injustices to the south and a federal system. “A federal system of government would mean more members of Parliament, more bureaucrats, and, as far as the South Island is concerned, instead of having a capital in Wellington, they’d have a capital in Christchurch, and I don’t see how that would help ’ Dunedin,” he told a conference after the Cabinet conference yesterday. .. ’ ■ The movement had reallyoriginated on the banks of the Clutha River, Mr Muldoon said. • -

“A leading protagonist, a Mr Powell, had a holiday cottage somewhere up near Wanaka and the river was going to rise. That was the start of it all—the Friends of the Clutha—and now. it has become the South Island Movement,” he said.

“One doesn’t see it as any kind of solution to the alleged ills of the South Island,” he said. *1 am bound to say that when I was down in Invercargill recently I didn’t find any sign of this. Down there they’re optimistic, they’re progressive and full ’of enthusiasm for what is going to happen in the future.”-

Mr Muldoon said < he: had a strong feeling that any new aluminium smelter, if approved, would “end up in Southland.” The people of Southland wanted it and the companies behind a smelter would be .more likely to go where they were wanted. ' It appeared that the movement should be called the South Island Excluding Southland Independence Movement, he said. “I think it’s a nonsense; The solution lies in government policies of regional development for the whole country. We are a very small country with a very small population and to divide it further is an economic, political, and constitutional nonsense,” Mr Muldoon said. . , • “What these people want is more government, more bureaucracy, more members of Parliament, and more capitals, all inside the one country, and that to me seems nonsensical.”

The people behind the movement were standing.in the way of the development of energy-intensive industries in the South Island. They were not being helpful and nor were they working in their bwn best interests. ;