P.M. backs use of long batons

Press, 13 November 1981, Page 4

P.M. backs use of long batons

NZPA staff reporter Hastings The National Party would support increased use of long batons by the police, said the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) last evening. Accusing the Labour Party of being “a bit soft” on the use of Tong batons, Mr Muldoon told an audience of about 1200 in the Municipal Theatre at Hastings that his government would support the police in using long batons to deal with gang violence and other confrontations. The Labour Party had been “soft” on the use of long batons during the Springbok tour and was soft on their use now. “As far as I am concerned as Prime Minister, and as far as my Minister of Police, Ben Couch, is concerned, if th bit soft” on the use of long batons, Mr Muldoon told an audience of about 1200 in the Municipal Theatre at Hastings that his government would support the police in using long batons to deaupport increased use of long batons by the police, said the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) last evening. Accusing the Labour Party of being “a bit soft” on the use of long batons, Mr Muldoon told an audience of about 1200 in the Municipal Theatre at Hastings that his government would support the police in using long batons to deal with gang violence and other confrontations. The Labour Party had been “soft” on the use of long batons during the Springbok tour and was soft on their use now.

“As far as I am concerned as Prime Minister, and as far as my Minister of Police, Ben Couch, is concerned, if the police want to go that way to stop this kind of things we will give them total support.” Mr Muldoon said the Labour leader (Mr Rowling) had promised to disband the Red and Blue squads formed to handle demonstrations against the Springbok tour. But the squads had, in fact, been dispersed on the Monday after the last match. The. capacity crowd at the theatre was rarely silent. They gave Mr Muldoon a standing ovation and threw streamers when he arrived, and cheered his pronouncements on law and order and his restatement of the National Party’s “hands off” policy on sports contacts with South Africa. The Labour Party had changed its mind so many times on sports contacts that it was impossible to know now just what its policy was, Mr Muldoon said. He challenged Mr Rowling to say publicly whether, if he was Prime Minister in December, he would stop the South African entrant in the round-the-world yacht race from berthing at Auckland with the rest of the fleet. Arriving at Hastings on the last of three successive nights of meetings in this marginal seat by political leaders, Mr Muldoon outdrew both Mr Rowling and the Social Credit leader, Mr Bruce Beetham. Mr Muldoon showed perhaps his toughest face so far

after almost two weeks of electioneering. His comments of the Springbok tour went further than before, and at one stage he responded to a heckler by saying he was happy to make the Melbourne Commonwealth summit an election issue. It was he who had conveyed the real feeling of New Zealanders to the heads of government in Melbourne, Mr Muldoon asserted, not Mr Rowling. “I told them that I was prepared to debate with any of them my country’s record in human rights against theirs and there wasn’t one of them prepared to debate it . . . not one,” he said. Mr Muldoon again hammered the growth strategy theme which has dominated his campaign. Referring to Hawke’s Bay’s biggest industrial concern, Wattie Industries, he said, “If Jim Wattie back in the 1930 s and 1940 s had thought the way the Labour Party thinks today, there would never have been a Watties industry. “That is the growth strategy in action — providing jobs and providing incomes.” The “Santa Clause party and the tooth fairy party” could not fulfill their promises, Mr Muldoon said. “The only way you are going to get jobs is through the growth strategy. “That is the way you get jobs, then you earn overseas funds that come back into the country, and everyone gets a lift.” Labour’s answer to the growth strategy was 16 carpet factories.