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Moore book launched

Parliamentary reporter The Labour member of Parliament for Papanui, Mr M. K. Moore, has written an 80-page paperback book about regional, community, and town development in New Zealand. Called “On Balance,” it is being distributed to retail stores and will be offered to local authorities, libraries, schools, and universities. It traces Labour Party achievements in regional and urban development, describes present policies, and suggests new ones. Mr Moore said the new policy suggestions were ideas for discussion by party members, union members,, students and the news media.

“Whatever feedback we get, officially or informally, will form the basis of our 1981 policy,” he said. A thousand copies .of the book have been print: ed. Mr Moore met the printing and publishing costs and has personally underwritten the venture: He expects it to break even.

Mr Moore said votecatching was not the reason for the book. He

would probably have gained more politically ■ if the time spent in research and writing had been spent door-knocking in his Papanui electorate. The book was a mix of Labour policies on regional and urban development and his own . ideas as the Labour spokesman on regional, community, and town development. It was essentially a “positive contribution,” an. attempt to get away from -the “bickering in the House”

that opposition parties were sometimes reduced to. “The thing about being in opposition is that you are able to test new ideas: you can dare to be a reform party,” said Mr Moore. “The book is a medium for that. Mr Moore said there was a dearth of written material by New Zealand opposition-party publicity divisions. In Europe, Parliamentary groups, particularly reform parties, were always writing. He believed he was the first Lahbour member of Parliament to write a book about Labour policy since the 193ds. The first third of the book deals critically with

the National Government’s record and policies from 1960 to the present and with Labour’s two terms of office from 1957. It describes how Labour policies would have dealt with problems over the period. The central chapter, “The New Regionalism,” examines concepts of greater regional autonomy and incentives to develop specified regional assets. “Towns And Rural Communities,” the final chapter, discusses assistance to keep small towns and communities viable, the return to a sense of neighbourhood, the need for flexibility in the work place, and urban-renewal schemes.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19800811.2.133

Bibliographic details

Press, 11 August 1980, Page 24

Word Count
396

Moore book launched Press, 11 August 1980, Page 24

Moore book launched Press, 11 August 1980, Page 24