Labour seeks free vote on tour issue

Press, 1 June 1981, Page 2

Labour seeks free vote on tour issue

PA . Wellington The Labour Party will push for a free vote .in Parliament on the issue of the Springbok tour. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) said that Labour would move to have the party Whips removed and members allowed to vote according to their own views on the issue.

. ' Mr Rowling said the private member’s bill on the Gleneagles Agreement, in the name of the Labour member. Mr A. J. Faulkner, provided the potential vehicle for such a vote. The bill could be reported back to the House late next week. “We have now reached the stage where it is clear that the Government has totally lost the wit to govern on this crucial issue,” Mr Rowling said. “It will continue to shelter behind the Rugby Union until the bitter end. In this situtation, clearly Parliament as a whole has to pick up that responsibility to the people of New Zealand.

"I believe that there are members in the National Party ranks who are deeply

concerned and ashamed about the failure of their leadership to protect New Zealand . interests on this matter,” said Mr Rowling. “I would expect those members to exercise that view in a free vote.”

Mr Rowling made it clear that he saw a difference between a free vote apd the conscience votes that were used in Parliament on issues such as the abortion issue and liquor laws. "This Springbok tour issue requires a balanced, over-all assessment by each member of the implications of this tour as a whole for, New Zealand,” he said. “It is not just a matter of individual conscience, though the whole concept of apartheid must surely stir the conscience of every New Zealand. It is a matter of mature political assessment and responsibility.” Mr Rowling said that on that basis, individual members of Parliament deserved the right to exercise that responsibility as representatives of their electorates rather than as members of a political party.