Socred chief confident

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 6

Socred chief confident

PA Auckland New Zealand would experience a peaceful ballot-box revolution on Saturday said the Social Credit leader (Mr Beetham) last evening. • He told 1400 people at the Auckland Town Hall that the league would take more than 25 per cent of the vote in the election. He also predicted, although he would not name them, that Social Credit would win at least three seats besides Rangitikei with 60 per cent of the votes. The meeting, the biggest Mr Beetham has held, was for the most part subdued,

but the audience was attentive and responded well to attacks on the National and Labour parties. Mr Beetham criticised the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and the Labour leader (Mr Rowling), put forward proposals to reform Parliament, and accused the Government of betraying private enterprise. Mr Muldoon was a “rude, abrasive, and divisive” leader who needed to be pulled down several political pegs, along with his party. “The words are long but the delivery is short,” Mr Beetham said.

He attacked both leaders for their behaviour in Melbourne at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting. It was undiplomatic and a breach of long-standing protocol, he said. “Mr Rowling had no right to make himself available to Commonwealth leaders in the manner he did. He compounded the diplomatic problems created by the Prime Minister’s intemperate remarks. “The leaders of both National and Labour by their actions have clearly dis-

played that they lack the qualities of statemanship required to represent this country,” Mr Beetham said. There was a great depth of feeling against the National Party. The Government’s attitude towards Skybus was an example of this and its hindrance of the airline had been a “betrayal of private enterprise values.” “Individual enterprise is dying fast. The system works for the top boys who are totally unsympathetic to the needs of individual New Zealanders,” Mr Beetham said.