Labour offers ‘forceful leaders’ to Chch voters

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 4

Labour offers ‘forceful leaders’ to Chch voters

> Christchurch voters faced a choice between forceful leaders and “yesterday’s men, who cannot cope with the problems of today,” said the Labour Mayoral candidate, Cr Mollie Clark, last evening.

In a wide-ranging attack on the Citizens’ Association, Cr Clark opened the Labour Party’s local-body election campaign and made a firm .commitment that a Labour cpuncil would close the Bex"ley tip by 1983, “come what may.”

" - Cr Clark laid out the main •issues in Christchurch—unemployment, electricity .'prices, motorways, the condition of city streets, rates 'and rubbish disposal—and ■said that Labour councillors would offer aggressive leadership in dealing with them.

She said that Christchurch was now a city that allowed itself “to be pushed around ,'by central Government,” and •it was a city which had “more room for motorways 'than for people and their •homes.”

' The city had “a bumbling 'bureaucracy stumbling from "indecision to indecision,” •with a Mayor who cried /‘Follow me,” and then pro- ■ deeded to run “round and ''round in circles,” Cr Clark ,said.

1 - The Citizens’ Association had no answer to constructive criticism, but the answers were there.

“ ■ Cr Clark made her strongest stand on unemployment. She said that the present administration had tried to sweep the problem .under the carpet. • ■ “A lot of people in Christchurch today are far from happy, let alone proud—.people who had their jobs zapped away by the GovernTnent’s economic policies. “The very word ‘restructuring’ strikes fear in the hearts of tradesmen in the woollen industry, of clerical workers and shop assistants, of people who planned a career in the insurance industry.” It was hard to know what to tell people who had lost their dignity and been rejected because of unemployment. I

A Labour council would “fight with every means at our disposal for the right to work,” she said. It could develop the Bexley employment zone, promote small-scale and labour-intensive industries, and offer “real incentives” for industry to establish in Christchurch. Cr Clark called for the establishment of a Canterbury Employment Council, to promote and develop more job opportunities. The Government could be pressured to make Canterbury eligible for regional development help, “something that should have been done years ago,” she said. The proposed Christchurch Airport runway extension would be “an immediate and effective form of regional development,” at no cost to the taxpayer or ratepayer. It would have the immediate benefit of offering employment during runway construction, and the "very real prospect” of a big increase in tourist industry job opportunities after it was completed.

Airport fight “Labour has led the fight for the orderly development of the Christchurch Airport,” Cr Clark said. “It was my suggestion to push ahead with the working drawings. “It was my suggestion that ,we seek co-terminal rights with Auckland. All the leadership on this issue has come from the Labour team.” C On the same issue, the -Mayor (Mr Hamish Hay) /‘went to Wellington under 'pressure from the people of •Christchurch,” she said. “He was outfoxed by the Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr

Colin McLachlan. Talk about the odd couple. Birds of a feather, they’ve both done nothing.” The Government had no moral right, nor economic justification, for its refusal to allow airport development. “It certainly has no moral right to use the funds generated in Canterbury to subsidise airports elsewhere,” Cr Clark said.

Completion of runway working drawings would take about six months. During that time, a Labour council would require the Government to reconsider its decision. “If then the Government still withholds the necessary approval, we will exercise our right under the contract to force the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) into arbitration,” she said. Power price Mr Hay had failed on the airport issue, and on the issue of electricity prices, Cr Clark said.

When the 60 per cent bulk

price rise had been announcedi “he joined in the chorus of complaint to the Government, but then secretly signed the memorandum of agreement, meekly accepting the increase,” she said.

After a strong Labour campaign, a power price discount had been given to some industrial users, and Mr Hay had “said publicly that we would have to be satisfied with that. "Well, we were not satisfied, and won’t be until there is at least a 25 per cent reduction in the price paid by the householder,” Cr Clark said. < . .

Labour demanded the same ' rights to negotiated electricity prices as had been given to foreign businessmen.

Cr Clark said that she would be a mayor who would “really fight for Christchurch.” Motorways A Labour council would scrap the Avonside-Wood-ham expressway proposal, Cr Clark said. It would forbid interference with Latimer Square and Cranmer Square, and try to have the northern motorway designation removed. Labour had always battled against expensive and unnecessary motorways, she said. They destroyed communities and the character and spirit of the city. “It is foolish to accept predictions made years ago about the increasing volume of traffic.”

It was more prudent to improve existing streets, cycleways, and footpaths, and to “use all the resources

of traffic management to improve the use of roadways and their safety.” Six years ago, Mr Hay had “made a lot of smooth promises about improving the roads,” Cr Clark said. “His performance has been as uneven as the roads are now.”

Rubbish disposal Mr Hay had made statements recently that seemed to indicate “that he has woken up to the problems of rubbish disposal in Christchurch,” she said. “Those who know him best know that he is talking in his sleep. “No amount of protest will force from him a realisation that the age of the great city dump is at an end.”

Bexley residents were justified in taking militant action to force the closing of the present tip in their suburb.

“They have been fobbed off for years with vague promises of better control of litter and traffic, with offers of consultation after decisions have already been made," Cr Clark said. Opposition to any alternative tip site would be “ferocious,” she said. “The fact is that nobody is prepared to accept a rubbish tip near their home unless it is forced on them.” She believed that there was sympathy for Bexley residents throughout Christchurch and residents had signed a petition protesting against the proposed Waimairi Beach landfill site. It was time “to take a bold new initiative,” Cr Clark said. A Labour council would adopt a comprehensive rubbish recycling project. Labour councillors had always had a great deal of disquiet about the metropolitan refuse scheme. “It would be stupid for the city to proceed with developing a $lO million monster without first being convinced that it is the right thing to do,” Cr Clark said. A complete review of the scheme was needed before it had gone too far. After the election, a Labour council would immediately set up a special review panel — with representatives from community groups — to examine the rubbish scheme and present workable alternatives. ;

Cr Clark said that recycling would be the growth industry of the 1980 s: “As prices have risen, private industry has moved into the more’lucrative areas, leaving the council to collect the unprofitable residue." Recycling needed a lot of public co-operation. To obtain that co-operation, there had to be active public participation in the planning, development, and decisionmaking. There would have to be an extensive public education programme. To keep costs low, changes in rubbish collection methods were needed. The council could not afford to take a timid approach to marketing. “We will adopt an aggressive and innovative approach to developing markets for recycled material,” Cr Clark said.

’ The volume of material to be dumped would be “dramatically reduced,” and that would mean fewer rubbish trucks in suburban streets. Rates The Citizens council had not kept a firm control on rates, Cr Clark said.

Citizens councillors “cannot give a straight answer on the prospects for holding rates in the future,” she said. “The reason is that the news is all bad.” The Citizens’ Association had “a big-business mentality to rate increases,” Cr Clark said. “They parrot phrases such as ‘the user pays,’ which roughly translates into the old principle of socking the consumer."

The rates bill was an insignificant part of their annual income, and Citizens councillors “simply do not understand the burden it puts on the lower-paid worker,” she said. Rates could be held. The last Labour council had used outside consultants to make a review of the Municipal Electricity Department’s activities.

“The fresh approach to old problems revitalised the organisation,” she said. However, the Citizens council had never, used outside resources for an indepth study of any council department.

Use of such consultants did not imply a lack of confidence in staff, she said: “It simply recognises that you cannot both play the game and referee at the same time.”

The lack of action in this area "reveals the weakness in the Citizens’ claim that businessmen make good councillors,” Cr Clark said. Some businessmen and women made the transition to being a good councillor, but a great many did not, she said, They relied too much on council staff to solve problems,' “and when called upon , to ' make decisions, do so with a bookkeeping mentality.” Each council project should be reviewed annually under a zero-based budgeting system. Progress had been slow on implementing such a system, "and we have received little support from the Citizens councillors,” Cr Clark said.

Day-to-day control of spending had been lacking in the last six years, and the average annual rates increase during that time had been 25.6 per cent, compared with a 9 per cent average for the last Labour council. The present excess water charges were also unfair to low-income families. “The effect of the Citizens’ policy is that low-income families are subsidising the swimming pools of the rich,” Cr Clark said. A Labour council would completely review the water allowance scheme for householders. Community participation Labour would increase the powers and responsibilities of neighbourhood committees, Cr Clark said.

People concerned should participate in making decisions affecting their neighbourhoods alone.

“It is simply not good enough to provide a formalised hearing, and then behind closed doors ignore everything the residents, have said,” Cr Clark said. Community participation would not come through council initiative, “nor will it survive if it is given only token powers,” she said. “As the problems of the area come . and go, the strength of community groups will rise and fall.”

Labour would encourage initiatives by such groups, and support them in developing activities in response to local demand, Cr Clark said.