Socred attack on ‘autocratic’ Govt

Press, 29 August 1980, Page 2

Socred attack on ‘autocratic’ Govt

£•* The Government has been ■i"; sharply criticised for failing to provide the public with ■""information. !«- In the first main speech to the Social Credit conference Z- at Lincoln College, the party _>• president (Mr S. Lipa) attacked the “increasingly I autocratic and secretive ’-"role” of the Government. >'X ' The . 27-year-old president to delegates Social V.?. Credit’s vision for the future. The vision would not •* "overturn society and achieve X'miracles, he said, but ii allow New Zealanders ;~~to become -self-reliant and a basic human need X' — freedom with security. To -Xrneet that end everybody had to have economic security the knowledge that, as individuals, they had the possible control ■c' government. Government activity and influence pervaded everyv..*one’s life, Mr Lipa said. ?! “The Government and its

Ministers have a very com-li mon habit of telling us, the!’ private citizens of New Zea-1: land, as little as possible, and only as much as they 1 ; decide we should know,” he said? Mr Lipa cited Ministers’ 1 reluctance to give informa- i : tion about the Marginal Lands Board “row,” and se-: : crecy of a report on the unsound condition of.. the < Mangere Bridge. He accused the Government of creating a scare over possible amoebic meningitis in a North Auckland hot pool by not telling the public to which pool it was referring. Mr Lipa’s 40-minute speech was punctuated by enthusiastic applause . from the 300 delegates, officials, and observers. The present economic system promoted by National ■ was i.Jt working, he said.: “If you are a businessman you are having a constant'

(struggle to replace stock and ‘keep ahead of costs. If you ■ are a salary or wage-earner, your costs always seem to be ahead of income. “As the smaller and middle-sized businessman is being squeezed out and dumped, the big multinational conglomerate is taking over.” itThe results were self-evi-dent, Mr Lipa said. Taxes, costs, debts, and prices were continually increasing; more New Zealanders were losing their economic security in unemployment, and nobody knew who would be next to

face the dole queues. New economic proposals had to be implemented to give back to every New Zealander a reasonable living standard and freedom with security, so that each person could become a useful and productive member of society. Mr Lipa described National and Labour as “partners in hopelessness” and stagnant as political parties.

Finishing his speech to a standing ovation, Mr Lipa said that a vote for National was supporting the continued destruction of freedom and economic security. A vote for Labour was a vote for confusion,: . Social Credit offered economic security with freedom —a new direction fbr New Zealand, Mr Lipa said.