‘Govt would use Clyde workers as hostages’

Press, 4 October 1982, Page 2

‘Govt would use Clyde workers as hostages’

Parliamentary reporter

The Government had shown that it was prepared to use the work force at .Clyde as hostages, said Mr P. T. E. Woollaston (Lab.,'Nelson) in Parliament. The Minister of Works had threatened that unless members of Parliament agreed with the Government's potty scheme, and the extraordinary extra-legal manner in which it proposed to extricate itself from a mess of its own making, then the Minister would begin sacking staff.

On the day before Labour Opposition members were due to visit Cromwell and Clyde, the Minister had indicated that he had upgraded his estimates for sackings to start the following week if Labour did not fall into step with him. Mr Woollaston said.

The Minister had said that he had 600 hostages down there, and that Labour had to do things his way or he would begin sacking them. The people of New Zealand were not very impressed.

Earlier, tlie Minister of Energy had dismissed all the submissions to the parliamentary select committee dealing with the illegality of

the Government's actions. Mr Woollaston said, on, the ground that constitutional and legal points were not relevant. Lake Dunsfan A great deal of work had gone into planning the character of Lake Dunstan behind the Clyde dam. as part of the multiple use of the resource, said Mr D. L. Kidd (Nat., Marlborough). '

Government commitments, arrangements, and undertakings were for creating an aquatic recreational,resource that was incidential to damming the river. Islands were being Created.-some for wildlife and some for man, he said. There was provision for creating beaches and proper shoreline facilities. There was provision for a lake fishery that would be a very substantial resource for the holiday and tourist potential of the South Island.

High dam

The Government had given the public servants at Cromwell the impression that regardless of . the results of the legal process it was engaged in. the high dam would be built, said Mr T. K. Burke

(Lab.; West Coast). The Government had im tended to have a high dam, win or lose,' and had made that decision long ago. he said. It had not given its officials any instructions about preparing alternative scenarios or design work. Also, the work-force figure of threatened jobs was 400 and not 600, and as many of them were permanent employees of the Ministry of Works they would remain employed there. The Labour Party had never let any of' those workers down, either in government or in opposition, and the workers at Cromwell knew that, as many of them had been involved in the Manapouri situation 10 years earlier, Mr Burke said.

‘No heart’ The Government had no heart, never had had. and in social welfare matters apparently never would have, said Mrs Mary Batchelor (Lab., Avon).

One had only to look at the .details of the Social Security Amendment Act, just through Parliament, to prove that, she said. Government members had no knowledge of the needs of

people outside Parliament who needed assistance from the State. Government members had concentrated on figures and on cost savings. At no time had they shown any. heart or humanity about what the legislation would do to the people concerned. Legislation criticised New social welfare legislation attacked the defenceless and preyed on the people who were least protected to hurt them the most, said Mrs Ann Hercus (Lab., Lyttelton). Who spoke for them? she said. They did not have the lobbyists employed by great multi-nationals in Wellington. They did not have the ear of the National Party as did Federated Farmers.

Who spoke for the bereaved, who were miserable in their grief, or for those who through no fault ol their own were old or ill or without a job? They did not have power and status and a marvellous old-boy network, Mrs Hercus said.

They were stuck with a Government with a majority of one that was making up the it went along and was 'being patronising about it.