HART list a ‘desperate measure’

Press, 19 May 1981, Page 1

HART list a ‘desperate measure’

The HART organiser, Mr John Minto, yesterday described accusations that members of his organisation were Communists as “a desperate attempt, a last resort smear on our

organisation.-’

The list of people alleged by a Catholic lay group in Wellington to be Communists within the HART leadership was dismissed by Mr Minto when he spoke on a radio programme in Auckland last evening, the Press Association in Auckland reported. He said the list appeared to have been gathered from similar sources to the list released a year ago on the political affiliations of 32 trade unionists.

Of the eight people mentioned in the Catholic group report, three were no longer concerned with the HART organisation, said Mr Minto, and the national chairman of HART, Ms Pauline McKay, had been labelled a Communist simply because she worked in a bookshop whose shareholders “might have been Communists.”

Ms McKay said that it had never been a secret that several members of HART’s executive had Communist or Socialist backgrounds. However, their personal, political affiliations were of no concern to HART. The list also contains details of court convictions of some HART executive members, which Ms. McKay noted were convictions for disorderly conduct. The list was leaked to the press after it was used by a group of Catholics . who had talks recently with Archbishop Tom Williams of Wellington, about the Church’s opposition to the Springbok tour.

The group was led by the Mayor of Lower Hutt, Mr John Kennedy-Good, who said yesterday he had not authorised release of the list.

Ms McKay said she believed the list was part of a fight between one Catholic group opposed to the actions of another Catholic group which supported HART. She described it as a “totally unprincipled attack” designed to discredit a movement which had a broad band of support in New Zealand.

Ms McKay said yesterday that she was not a member of the Communist Party, and had never been a member of any political party. HART’S South Island coordinator, Mr S. Bayliss, also said he was not a Communist and had never been a member of any Communist organisation.

, M r Kenned y-Good yesterday rejected any suggestion 'that the group of Catholics he leads had outside help in preparing the list of members of HART’s executive he said were Communists or had Communist sympathies. Everything in the report was publicly available, he said.

Mr Kenned y-Good declined to disclose the names of people in his own group, the Adhoc

Committee of Lay People for Justice.

This was because the report had been prepared in confidence and it had nob been the comrtittee’s intention to seek publicity.

He said the formation of the committee had stemmed from a report on February 4 in which he had attacked a grant by the Catholic Commission for Evangelisation, Justice, and Development to HART.

“I got a tremendous flood of support for my comments and as a result our group was formed.” The ■ committee comprised Catholic lay people mainly from the Hutt Valley, plus a few from Wellington. “We have no money and no structure. We share a common concern about the support given by the Church, not just the Catholic Church, to HART.”

Mr Kennedy-Good said the committee had written to Archbishop Williams expressing its concern about the grant by the commission to HART, and referring to the Communist associations of many members of HART’S executive.

Archbishop Williams had writtf . back saying he was unaware of these associations and had asked the committee to document them. Mr Kennedy-Good said the report had been prepared and a deputation of five had met Archbishop Williams.

“We spent nearly two hours going through the document with him on the understanding he was going to raise it at the Catholic Bishops’ conference,” he said. Archbishop Williams says he regarded the claim that Communists held positions on the executive of HART as a “very minor matter.”

In a statement issued through the Catholic Communications Centre yesterday Archbishop Williams said he had received a large amount of mail about a $lOOO donation made by the Catholic Commission for Evangelisation, Justice, and Development to HART. Mr Kennedy-Good had come forward with the claim that HART’s executive included Communists.

The Archbishop, according to the centre statement, had said such claims could not be made without substantiation.

The group had replied with a letter (|he Archbishop said he emphasised that he saw it as a letter, not a report) outlining the alleged Communist affiliations of some HART members. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said at a news conference that there had always been a Communist element in HART.

“I have known of Communist involvement in HART for many years,” he said.

The Cabinet had talked

about the controversy yesterday morning,' but had not decided to do anything about it, he said. Commenting that he “honestly” could not say how many Communists were involved in HART, Mr Muldoon said: “I guess there would not be one Communist in New Zealand who is not supporting them at the present time.”