Party ‘like car salesman'

Press, 2 March 1981, Page 13

Party ‘like car salesman'

Voting for Social Credit t would be like buying a sec- : ond-hand car from a salesi man who asked the purcha- . ser to buy it on Ms word [ alone, according to the Do- ; minion chairman of the J Young Nationals, Mr S. D. i Upton. Mr Upton said in Christ- , church that he was concerned tliat Social Credit was appealing for votes on the basis that the league could manage New Zealand less ineptly than ’ National or Labour, instead of appealing with detailed policies. This was rather like buy- : ing a second-hand car from a salesman who advised the ; buyer to ignore the caps past history and war- , ranty but to accept his word i that the car was a good buy. Mr Upton conceded that Social Credit could, have

some "superficial attraction” to young voters but he believed that the league had no positive attraction to voters.' ,f »- He considered that young people, who could be ’mote open-minded but also cynical about politics, would respond to a party which said it did not promise simple solutions. "My message to young people is: Beware of politicians bearing gifts, bribes, and promises,” he said. ‘You can’t get something for nothing.” Among the "bribes.” Mr Upton included the Labour Party’s policy of guaranteeing work for the first five years of a young person’s working life. Instead, he advocated that young people should not necessarily be paid award rates in ’ their first two years of employment.

Unions were letting young people down, he maintained, by demanding award rates when workers being trained in the first 18 months of their working lives were unproductive and expensive to their employers. Unions also had an unreasonable attitude to compulsory retirement ages, he asserted. Mr Upton has been visiting the five divisions of the Young Nationals.