P.M. launches party’s ‘most positive policy’

Press, 3 November 1981, Page 1

P.M. launches party’s ‘most positive policy’

NZPA staff correspondent Hamilton The National Party's policy for the General Election is the “most positive election policy that has ever been presented to the New Zealand public,” said the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) last evening. Launching his campaign for.a third consecutive term of government, Mr Muldoon said National’s policy would “produce growth in our great export industries ... agriculture, horticulture, forestry, fishing, tourism and the new one, energy.’’ In a national broadcast, Mr Muldoon emphasised the Government’s growth strategy, pledged a continued policy of non-interference in sports contacts with South

Africa, and asked if the “inexperienced enthusiasts” of Labour or Social Credit could be trusted to govern in a “cold, hard, tough” world. Sometimes reading from his notes and at one stage sounding hoarse, Mr Muldoon was often applauded by the capacity, tickets-only crowd of 1200 people which packed the Founders Hall from which he launched his successful 1975 and 1978 election campaigns.

As inside he spelled out the themes aimed at returning a National Government on November 28, outside a smattering of demonstrators chanted “Muldoon out” as he arrived at the hall. Inside there was not a heckler to be heard. The party faithful saved their

most vigorous applause for the odd attack on Labour’s leader, Mr Rowling, for praise for the way the police handled the Springbok tour demonstrations, and for the assertions that National would leave sports bodies to make their own decisions. Growth was the key, he said. “It is by this means that we will lift this economy and every sector of it ... production, distribution and servicing, and thus provide jobs not just for today’s unemployed but for the children who are now at school, and children yet to be born. "By this means we will put New Zealand on a growth path that will enable young people to set their sights on a career in the knowledge

that when the time comes, that career will be available to them.” Labour and Social Credit were talking about distributing wealth they had no plans to create, said Mr Muldoon. The National Party had plans to create wealth “that will flow into every corner of the economy and provide a higher standard of living for everyone." National’s policies had not “been dreamed up in the dead of night by a group of desperate politicians sitting in an office in Parliament Buildings,” he said. They were the product of the whole body of expertise available to the State — from Government departments and the private sector. “We have brought together a cohesive practical programme based on the fact that in our traditional industries there is great scope for expansion in the years to come while at the same time, the second oil shock made our abundant energy resources commercially viable and enabled us to bring together a new energybased sector which will bring a new dimension to the New Zealand economy.”

Mr Muldoon told his audience that increases in farm R reduction had only allowed tew Zealand to break even with increases in the prices of imported energy and manufactured goods. But the now-viable energy resources of New Zealand could be sold .at a price which would “inevitably” keep pace with the price of oil, and which, also inevitably, would continue to rise. The growth strategy would give New Zealand security, he said. Overseas funds at first invested and then created by the growth strategy projects would boost the total economy. “Whether you run a jewellers’ shop, 5 or whether you are a bookseller, or whether you are a motor mechanic, or whether you work in a shirt factory, every one of these occupations needs overseas funds to provide the plant and raw materials to make their business grow,” Mr Muldoon said. Distribution and service industries took their prosperity from the total economic prosperity which in turn required overseas funds. “This is the aspect of the growth strategy which our political . opponents are trying to ignore,” he said. “If we can get our balance of payments in shape by ex-

porting more, then the total economy will benefit. Everyone will benefit, and that means there will be jobs forall of our people.” With four weeks of hard campaigning ahead of him, Mr Muldoon said the experience of government would be one of the major issues of the 1981 campaign. “Can we afford to let loose the inexperienced enthusiasts in the two Opposition parties, whose votes are based on vote-catching rather than reality,” he asked. “Can you afford to let loose these people of little or no experience? Can you put your future in their hands in a world which more than at any time since the Great Depression is hard, cold and tough." Mr Muldoon barely referred to the Springbok tour. However, he again predicted there would be no boycott of next year’s Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, “because their bluff has been called.”, New Zealand would not only’ be there, he said, “but will win more than our share of medals." Repeating National's policy on sporting contacts, he said the right to engage in international sport was a “fundamental freedom.” “New Zealand adheres to the Gleneagles Agreement and will continue to observe it.” But decisions on sports contacts would be made by the sports bodies, not the Government. Visas for incoming sportsmen would not be refused and passports for' New Zealanders travelling abroad would not be with? held. Mr Muldoon said National would continue to adhere to a defence policy based on the 30-year-old A.N.Z.U.S. treaty and would continue to support the police, giving them any reasonable new law that would help them “carry out their duties in an increasingly complex society.”. The future of individuals in the country would grow along with New Zealand, Mr Muldoon said. “National’s policy is not growth for its own sake. National’s growth policy is to ensure that we can continue to afford all our freedom, education, employment, health care, and justice. “We are out to build a strong economy because a weak economy will dramatically reduce our ability to survive,” he said. “In other words, your future depends on growth.”