Sharp response to Socred claims

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 1

Sharp response to Socred claims

PA ■ ■ .’ Wellington Social Credit claims on its electoral chances this year have drawn sharp responses from both -the main political parties. The Leader of. the Opposition 1 (Mr Rowling) has challenged Social Credit to fight the election on hard policy, and National’ has issued a pamphlet entitled “The Myth of Social l Credit.” . Social Credit’s president, Mr J. S. Lipa, said after a ■meeting at Auckland on Sunday that Social Credit would win more votes than Labour in the General Election. Labour’s support would collapse in the marginals it was hoping to win from National, he said. “Social Credit is taking up the middle ground left by National- and Labour,” Mr Rowling, challenging the Social Credit leader

(Mr B. C. Beetham).. ( th fight the; election' on hard 'policy, rather than on “disy torted smear tactics,” said' that Mr Beetham was, get-.> ting down to the political standards of the /Prime Minister (Mr, Mul’dbpn), in an effort “to ,'“divert attention away-from'the policy, vacuum the league' floats in.” . i ■ .. “The Labour? Party Tis fighting this . ejection, on the .issues of . jobs, prices, a fair and decent income, and the question of who owns New Zealand;” ■Mr Rowling said; 1 I.’ .T . .'■■’■ “We reject-extremism of. anv kind, from the Left or ■the Right, -and we equally reject attempts; to divert the election, away; from the real issues. . . “The choice facing New Zealand is . either three more years of a big-busi-ness National Government,or a Labour Government committed to a better deal for ordinary people?’ ,'. The president 'of the National Party (Mr G. A. Chapman) said yesterday that the rise in support for Social Credit, expressed in public opinion on polls, had been based on what Socred did not stand “This pamphlet, ‘The Myth of Social Credit,” sets out to analyse seriously what Social Credit really does stand for, and the effect Social Credit’s untried economic policies would have on individual New Zealanders.” he said. • “The issue of the pamphlet comes in response to extravagant claims made, by Social Credit about the number of seats it will win the 1981 General Election. “We are concerned that electors should understand what economic policies Social Credit would seek to implement if it did hold the balance of power, as it has predicted.” Mr Chapman said that 200,000 copies of the

pamphlet were being distributed; throughout New Zealand. , . ... '