A National victory ‘would be tragedy’

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 10

A National victory ‘would be tragedy’

If a National Government ■ was re-elected it would be a social and economic tragedy for New Zealand, the Values Party candidate for Yald.Juixyt _Dr..A _J. . Wilki.nsqn. told an election meeting. Dr Wilkinson, who is also one of the party’s three leaders, said that the National Pary was run by the 1 per cent, of the New Zealand population which held 20 per cent of the country’s wealth, National was a party of the status-quo and moved in the opposite direction to the social changes Values supported. To'an audience of 22, Dr Wilkinson gave a Values assessment of the three main parties. He looked at their policies on democracy, peace, wealth, new technology, energy and environment, decentralisation, women, and freedom of information. On a scoring system under which Values achieved the maximum 54 points for its policies in these areas, Social

Credit won 34.5 points, Labour 18, and National 3.5 points. One member of the audience said that National’s score was “far too high.” Social Credit had come two-thirds of the way along the path Values supported. Its policies on the environment were excellent, but it had not even noticed the issue of new technology, he said. Social Credit did not have ,a women’s policy. Much of what Labour and National promised amounted to rhetoric, but Social Credit did not even have the rhetoric. While Social Credit had some good policies, its candidates were only bound by the party’s economic policies. Each candidate had to be asked if he or she supported the policies in the manifesto. Labour had only come a third of the way . along the Values path, said Dr Wilkinson. It was likely to be more flexible than but it was also. likely to make “blunders.”' •

It was still a Centralist party and its policies on issues such as the environment were “opportunist.”. Labour would make some reforms, but its assertion was to run the capitalist system better than the National Party, he said. Labour was not facing up to the economic issues, he . said. New Zealand’s situation would get worse because of resource depletion, the cost of oil and the unfair distribution of wealth. Labour was not saying anything about these problems. “Labour’s only chance is to lose. They have gone and said they can fix things and they can’t,” he said. Values wanted open Government, more diverse lifestyles, decentralisation, cooperative enterprises, racial and sexual equality, and proportional representation, Dr Wilkinson said. . Values ■ supporters should go out and tell the other parties what they wanted.