Candidates told not to sign pledges

Press, 30 October 1981, Page 1

Candidates told not to sign pledges

General Election candidates of the three main political parties are being advised not to sign "integrity pledges” sent to them by the Tax Reduction Integrity Movement.

The presidents of the three parties told the Press Association yesterday that their candidates would be advised not to sign the five pledges put out by the movement, which is based in Christchurch.

The Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Mr B. E. Clarke, said that the Justice Department’s legal advisers were studying the movement’s material to see if it breached the Electoral Act. A decision on any action was expected this afternoon. The movement has sent packs of to 292 election candidates asking them to sign pledges, one of which commits them to voting for a maximum 7.5 per

cent turnover tax to replace all other taxes. The national co-ordinator of the movement, Mr G. N. Russeil, said the movement planned a $190,000 campaign.

The member of Parliament for St Albans and the Labour Party’s associate spokesman on finance, Mr D. F. Caygill, yesterday issued a statement on behalf of Labour candidates in Christchurch. He said that Labour’s local candidates would ignore the pledges and that the party's Whips had sent telegrams to all Labour candidates telling them not to sign the pledges.

Discussions with candidates of other parties showed that nobody was likely to respond to the movement's campaign. The pledges were “simplistic nonsense’’,- particularly the one on turnover tax. Tax reform was needed urgently and Labour had already an-

nounced its plans for "significant tax reductions." Turnover tax was not an antiinflationary measure. Such a tax would add to the cost of each stage of production of goods and The olhef pledges were “just as naive.” A pledge to vote against any legislation which prevented competition might open the doors to Sunday trading and the sale of liquor on Sundays. It could be seen as a pledge to object to legislation which ensured workers’ safety or which banned child labour.

A pledge to vote against any form of compulsory association might put the Law Society or Medical Association in trouble.

Mr Russell said on Wednesday that the movement would proceed with its proposed advertising campaign even if the response to the pledges from election candidates was poor.