By-election not easy pick

Press, 5 September 1980, Page 4

By-election not easy pick

PA Auckland East Coast Bays voters will go to the polls tomorrow i faced with having to select a member of Parliament to succeed Mr F. Gill, who is now the New Zealand Ambassador to Washington. The 29,243 people eligible to vote in the by-election have had to put up with a campaign bristling with side issues. The electorate has long been regarded as a safe National Party stronghold and its choice as candidate, Dr D. T. Brash, was expected to have an easy ride into Parliament. The Labour Party and Social Credit Political League became embroiled in charge

I and counter-charge after a Labour assertion in a pamphlet that the man regarded as Social Credit’s policy founder, Major Douglas, was anti-Semitic. Then the announcement by the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, early this week that Auckland Harbour Bridge tolls would be increased by 25 per cent threw a dampener on National’s low-key campaign.

Like all other people affected by the price rise, Dr Brash was taken by surprise. His opponents, particularly the Labour candidate, Mrs Wyn Hoadley, jumped at the opportunity to turn the announcement to political advantage. ; First she said that the tolls

should be held at their present rate. Then she said she would work for their abolition if elected.

In an apparent effort to nullify any effect , the price rise would have on his majority, Dr Brash also said that he wanted to. see an end to bridge tolls. e The Social Credit candidate, Mr G. T. Knapp, was able to say that his party had called for years for the abolition of the tolls. A letter from the national vice-president of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, Mr P. Barry-Mar-tin, which calls on S.P.U.C. members to note' that Dr Brash’s views come nearest to the society’s attitudes, is

seen by Dr Brash as counterproductive. Mrs Hoadley seized the chance to air her views on the abortion question, an issue which had not had much airing in the campaign. She regards herself as “definitely pro-choice,” saying that abortion is a matter between a woman and her doctor. Dr B. S. Gustafson, a senior lecturer in political studies at Auckland University, said yesterday that the by-election campaign had been “trivialised.” News coverage seemed to have centred on bizarre controversies about pamphlets and letters and what Social Credit, Labour, and National people had said about one another.