P.M. confident of N.I. support

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 6

P.M. confident of N.I. support

NZPA political reporter Wellington The .< Prime Minister’s swing through North Island marginal seats last week has left him outwardly confident at the half-way stage of the election campaign. Mr Muldoon drew good crowds throughout the North Island from Dargaville and Whangarei to Masterton on Friday evening. “I think it is going extremely well,” he said. “The atmosphere is very good. There is an absence of the widespread opposition that there has been at some times.

“This means to me that the public are satisfied with the policy that we are putting in front of them.” Mr Muldoon has shown no inclination to admit to anything other than confidence about the outcome of the election in two weeks time. Of the various electorates through which he travelled last week, several seem likely to elude National on polling day. ' . - In the north, according to local comment, both Kaipara in North Auckland and Hauraki appear to be heading

towards Social Credit, dumping in the process the sitting National member of Parliament, Mr Peter Wilkinson, and Mr Graeme Lee, heirdesignate to Mr Leo Schultz. Further south, the Gisborne electorate will go Labour, according to locals, dropping Mr Bob Bell, of National. At Hastings, in spite of Mr Muldoon’s win in the public meeting numbers game, most opinion favours Mr David Butcher, of Labour, to hold on in the face of a strong challenge by Mr Hamish Kynoch (National).. Mr Muldoon sees it differently. “At the middle of the campaign I am quite satisfied,” he said. Referring to the electorates he has visited, particularly the highly marginal Gisborne and Hastings seats, he said, “I did not have much of a worry there anyway, but I am quite happy now.” Mr Muldoon agreed that it was seats such as those which would decide the outcome of the General Election. .

“I just do not feel that we are going to lose them,” he said. i

“I would be really astounded if we did.”

Mr Muldoon cited the general atmosphere of the towns he has visited as well as the main- meetings. But there have been few votes for him a$ any of the places he has visited outside of his setpiece public meetings. At Gisborne, he toured a freezing works, from the killing chain to the boning room, but on Mr Bob Bell’s own admission it was hardly National votes territory. At Napier,' Mr Muldoon said, office girls had waved out the window at him when he visited the Rothmans factory, but large numbers of the workers in the areas of the factory he visited were wearing Labour badges. One fact which is beyond dispute is that Mr Muldoon has continued to fill, often to overflowing, the halls in which he holds his evening meetings. Although the numbers are insignificant in terms of the numbers of people who will vote National in the town, let alone the total population of the town and surrounding electorates, Mr Muldoon says a full meeting gives “an aura.”