Drive for unity blurred Socred conference

Press, 3 September 1982, Page 12

Drive for unity blurred Socred conference

By

KARREN BEANLAND

' Social Credit emerged from its conference at Hamilton patting itself,on the back for appearing the most unified political force in the country. : At the end of the.four-day conference, the party’s leader, Mr B. C. Beetham, congratulated the delegates on their unity and political maturity. What price has Social Credit paid for its public appearance of unity? The main issue faced by the conference — the name change proposal — was resolved without acrimony. The decision to drop the words “political league” was a happy compromise for the party because it meant nearly everyone was satisfied, but whether it will have any significant-effect on electoral support is debatable. The other contentious issues, such as the Clyde high dam agreement, closer economic relations with. Australia, and the new defence policy of armed neutrality, passed by with no real. debate. . Delegates saw the confer-, ence as one of the best in the party’s history, yet it was the very lack of discord and real debate that left observers scratching their heads and questioning the party’s political maturity. , * > In a centre political grouping with-a supposedly broad base, it seemed incredible that noone could see any' benefits at all from closer economic relations, with Australia or from New Zealands remaining in A.N.Z.U.S. However, the delegates were unanimous in their opposition to C.E.R. and only one or two saw pitfalls in adopting a policy of armed neutrality. Social Credit’s unity stems ' from the top. In no other party does the leadership manage to guide its members so easily. After Mr Beetham and other leading party figures had boasted that Social Credit was the only party which stood for the individual and for prin■ciple, the delegates quietly accepted a-policy which included compulsory military training. '■ They also passed a unani-J • moiis vote of confidence in the handling of the Clyde dam issue.

No doubt, the fact that the Clyde issue was taken immediately after the epic debate on the name change had something to do with the lack of debate. Delegates may also have been cowed by .Mr Beetham’s blistering attack on some of the party’s Rotorua members who publicly, ised the deal. Nevertheless, it was surprising that not one delegate was prepared to speak out. Off the conference floor, several delegates indicated that they were not happy with the deal and found the idea of Social Credit supporting special empowering legislation abhorrent. At least one candidate in last year’s General Election was still considering whether he should resign from the party over the issue, i , Mr Beetham was the main reason for the apparent content and unity of the conference delegates. Now in his eleventh year as the party’s leader, he is the longest serving and youngest leader of the three main parties. He was to a large extent responsible for the rise in Social Credit support in recent times, having pulled the party together after a major split in 1972. Social Credit members know this and revere him for it. Mr Beetham showed his mettle as leader in the name change debate. He allowed the delegates to mull over the issue during nearly five hours of debate and in the intense lobbying that proceeded it At the start of the debate he asked for a reasonable discus-, sion of the issues involved, without acrimony, and indicated that he wanted to see the words - “political? league” dropped. He stepped in again at the end of the debate with an even stronger plea, and the conference obediently. went along with his wishes. ' . Social Credit’s deputy leader, Mr G. T. Knapp, did not fare quite so well over the name' change issue. Although he was confident of support for his k . proposal to adopt the name, £ ■ the New Zealand Democratic. • Party, it was voted out by . three votes to. one His active lobbying tor sup-

port led to a slap over the. knuckles, when Mr A. Shaw, of Papatoetoe, decided to challenge him for his deputy leadership. He later withdrew his nomination after the name change issue was resolved. Although Mr Knapp’s support was not seriously eroded, a number of delegates viewed his attempt to introduce radical change with suspicion. When he briefly touched on the question of a successor to Mr Beetham, a heckler called out: “It won’t be you mate.” Those who opposed a radical name change were angry with Mr Knapp for introducing a proposal that could have split the party. They found it hard to accept his later explanation that he had supported a radical change in order to make the minor change more acceptable. Dropping the wprds “political. league” from Social Credit’s name would have been inconceivable five years ago. After last week-end’s conference, however, the delegates were for the most part very happy with the move. Most agreed with the view that the change meant the party was taking heed of political realism and dropping an unnecessary and archaic term, as well as a few unsavoury The name change debate forced the delegates to take an honest look at their party and , its policies. While some delegates argued that Social Credit had gained 'respectability; 7 others, like , the long-term.... member, Mr G. Bryant, said bluntly that 21 per cent of the vote in 28 years was not a very good achievement. Amid a' host of arguments on the pros and cons of the party’s name, several speakers referred to the difficulty of explaining Social Credit’s monetary.' policies s arid its “funny moriey” image. The conference, determined to retain its appearance of unity .at all costs,. failed to confront this crunch issue head-on. They opted for a slight change in their label, but . . the. goods they are ’trying to sell are stilt the same.