Next Labour conference in Auckland

Press, 14 May 1982, Page 3

Next Labour conference in Auckland

PA Wellington Next year’s Labour Party conference will be held in Auckland, delegates decided yesterday.

No date was set, although the party’s president, Mr J. P. Anderton, said many delegates favoured the August school holiday period rather than May. He also said the mood this year favoured next year’s conference being held on a Friday. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, rather than the present arrangement of starting on a Monday. Mr Anderson said that the Auckland area needed the boost that a conference would bring. “We had only a points victory in Auckland,” he said, referring to Labour’s 12-10 seat victory there.

The 1977 annual conference had been held in Christchurch and since that time the party had not looked back, winning eight seats to National’s two in that electorate, he said.

Organisational remits carried yesterday included a suggestion that all members of Parliament, and elected local government members, be required to disclose their financial interests.

Delegates also supported a move to have any internal criticism of Labour Party members aired through the “proper channels" instead of through the news media.

A remit asking the New Zealand council of the party to explain why it confirmed the Parliamentary party’s policy on A.N.Z'U.S. and private broadcasting when the conference proposed opposing policies, was carried.

However, a further remit suggesting that the New Zealand council had acted unconstitutionally by accepting the council’s policy on these two matters was lost.

A remit was passed seeking a “realistic level” for the honararium of party president so that the incumbent should not suffer financial hardship.