National gets warning on election worries

Press, 26 July 1980, Page 1

National gets warning on election worries

Disarray in the Labour Party was causing a feeling of complacency in the National Party, National’s president, Mr G. A. Chapman, told the party’s annual conference in Auckland yesterday. “If is tempting to look at the Labour Party and smile at the state of disarray and obvious leader ship problems that party faces: the: Rata defection, and those two stormy petrels of the Labour Party, Richard Prebble and Roger Douglas, being banished to the back benches,” he told the 800 delegates in his traditional address.

“From my point of view, the worrying fact is only • five seats separate National and Labour, and National goes into the next election with seven seats with majorities of 300 or less. “Add to that the fact that Social Credit is second in 10 seats and the 1981 picture becomes even more confused, and the outcome more difficult to predict with confidence. For this, reason I have continued to emphasise that the result of the 1981 General Election could be close,” Mr Chapman said.

"Reluctant as I am to make this observation, it is important to remember that if Labour is elected as the government in 1981, it is almost certain that both Richard Prebble and Roger Douglas will become Cabinet Ministers — and to most New Zealanders that must indeed be a sobering thought,” he said.

Alt this added up to the need for National to. be

TIMARU SOME SHOWERS

better organised than ever before, not • only in the marginal electorates but in those traditionally safe National seats where Social Credit was second, Mr Chapman said. The impact of oil prices on New Zealand’s balance of payments had been; severe and was a constant reminder that the country’s growth . was totally dependent on its ability to export. • . . Against this background,

From

PHILIP WORTHINGTON

the progress made by the National Government in three key areas brightened the country’s prospects for the 1980 s. These were the export policy; the development policy, designed to build new ventures based on New Zealand’s natural resources; and the oil-suf-ficiency policy, designed to take New Zealand to 50 per cent self-sufficiency by the mid-1980s.

"The export policy is a success story ■in every sense of the term. The big surge in exports as a result of the National Government’s policies has made it possible to cope with the savage increase in oil prices and the dramatic impact of overseas inflation on all other import prices.

“The potential for growth in exports is enormous in this decade. Present estimates indicate that exports could grow in present-day terms from 85000 million to $lO,OOO million by 1990,” Mr Chapman said.

AUCKLAND SHOWERS

“The development policy is equally exciting. Investment procedures costing hundreds of millions of dollars abound — providing both exports and import substitution — most of them financed by the private sector. “I re-emphasise . what I said in the council report — that most of the new development is taking place in the South Island,” Mr Chapman said. Huge sums were being

spent on the oil-sufficiency policy, particularly, in de? velopment of the Maui resource, but compared with the likely future cost of oil and its availability, all these projects were a sound investment in the country’s future.

The “crunch issue” which would face New Zealand voters in 1981 was the philosophical approach of the two main parties, Mr Chapman said.

“The twin conferences of the Labour movement two months ago confirmed the influence of the Social-

ist Unity Party over the Federation of Labour and the Left-wing lurch of the Labour Party. "However, in retrospect, probably the most impor-' tant. statement made at either conference was that made at the Labour Party conference by .its leader. “I quote from a speech during an economic debate at thp conference. Mr Rowling said: ‘There will be a significant over-all redistribution of wealth, there must be a steady shift from taxation on" ..; effort towards taxation on ’'assets.’ , ‘ . '“In : my, view, this is a -total Commitment by the Labour leader to the socialist philosophy and to a socialist State. That road is the road to disaster for our country. “New Zealand can make progress in a difficult, troubled and competitive world only if market forces are allowed to operate. The public sector must be restrained and the private sector given active encouragement. This is the philosophy of our party supporters,” said Mr Chapman. (Further reports, pages 3 and 6.)

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