N.I. anti-smelter tour plans

Press, 3 February 1981, Page 7

N.I. anti-smelter tour plans

PA .? Dunedin Campaign Power Poll, the national organisation opposed to the secfind aluminium • smelter, will launch a three-month road tour in Auckland in , March, taking the issue to / electorates in regional / centres of the North/ Isalnd. J Plans for the tour were approved at a meeting i/ Christchurch of Powe Poll representatives frap Auckland, Wellingtd, Dunedin, and Chricchurch. / “The electorate is Remarkably volatile,” M Mrs Joy Ritchie, convfior of the meeting. Only .the National Government /upported the smelter,/she said.. / , Mrs Ritchie said /outn Pacific Aluminium,/ Ltd, must be looking urasily at the confused plitical situation this year. J , “Our job is to lighten their unease,” she .sid.

The tour, to be based in i caravan to be financed 1y Dunedin anti-smelter interests, will be termed a /‘travelling embassy” representing the “independent /state of Aramoana.” / Mrs Ritchie said the /tour would focus on elecI tricity prices and the employment impact of the smelter. "It will spearhead a series of campaign activities which will take the smelter issue to regional centres, and include debates with members of Parliament, talks with community groups and seminars, for Power Poll activists. “We intend to make sure that everyone in this country realises that they will be subsidising the smelter and that in return there will be very few jobs, questionable foreign exchange earnings, and a heavy multinational involvement in our country,” Mrs Ritchie said.