Labour goal to rebuild welfare State

Press, 14 May 1982, Page 3

Labour goal to rebuild welfare State

PA Wellington Labour's immediate goal should be to rebuild the welfare State, said Ms Helen Clark at the Labour Party conference yesterday in Wellington. She was the first of several new Labour members of Parliament to address the conference on what their vision for New Zealand should be under the next Labour government. Ms Clark said Labour had often been accused by its opponents of “woolly headed idealism,” but she rejected the accusation. Labour’s objectives were clear and simple and had been “set in concrete” by the first Labour government of 1935-49. The party’s foreign policies should be. .based on “progressive” domestic philosophy, she said. In particular, the next Labour government should concentrate on the oppression of blacks and Coloureds in South Africa, she said. Ms Margaret Shield (Kapiti) said the 690 delegates attending the conference were there because they had "a carefully constructed view" of the future, not a "fantastic" one. The Government had only scorn, for the wishes of most people, and was more interested in military alliances than in the views of the peole who lived in New Zealand, she said. . Rotorua's member of Parliament, Dr P. W. Tapsell, said the Government was doing all it could to undermine New Zealand's health services but this could not simply be restored with money.

A Labour government would need to restore the service through a reallocation of resources and the establishment of priorities, he said. The first of these would be to put an end to hospital waiting lists. Mr P. T. E. Woollaston (Nelson) accused the Government of taking a “goldrush approach” to the development of the country's natural resources. Seafood and energy resources were both being “plundered,” he said. Ms Fran Wilde (Wellington Central) said idealism and practicality were notions that could go together. She attacked the Government's “divide and rule tactics."

After the members of Parliament had spoken, the party’s president, Mr J. P. Anderton, said he demanded that the news media print what had been said. The conference carried most of the remits calling for a reform of the welfare system. They included suggestions that the disermination between Accident Compensation and sickness benefit payments be removed, that funding be provided for women’s refuge centres, and that a bill removing the gender for sexual offences be supported. Remits lost were a move to allow those over 55 the option taking up superannuation’ and a suggestion that National Superannuation for a single person be 70 per cent of the average wage and, a married person pro rata; on Labour becoming the government..