Free vote on tour ?

Press, 2 June 1981, Page 6

Free vote on tour ?

PA I • Wellington The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) yesterday labelled Labour’s call for a free Parliamentary vote on the Springbok tour “a lot of nonsense.” -• • He said such a vote.would serve no purpose whatsoever. The Government supported the Gleneagles Agreement and was carrying it out. The chairperson of HART, Ms Pauline McKay, said she thought the move was Labour’s way of showing that the Government was not facing its responsibility to stop the tour.

The spokesman for the Citizens Association for Racial Equality, Mr Tom Newnham, hailed the proposed vote as a “positive” move. However he said the vote would need to have “teeth”./ and free Mr Muldoon’s hand by authorising him to'>stop the tour. The New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association’s executive chairman, Mr Roy Dutton, said a free vote would probably give a clearer picture of where public opinion lay. The Government was the only body left that could do

anything to stop the tour, he said. . The Association passed a resolution at its last annual meeting calling on New Zealand to uphold the Gleneagles Agreement. . The New Zealand Rugby. Union management committee’s chairman, Mr Ces Blazey, said it was policy not to comment on matters raised between the various political parties. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) has said a vote against the tour from Parliament would give the Government a direct mandate to act.