Security plan condemned

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 11

Security plan condemned

A recent suggestion by the Minister of Education, Mr Wellington, that South Auckland schools should use security guards to reduce vandalism has been condemned by Social Credit’s spokesman on education, Mr Richard Bach.

Unemployment levels of 70 per cent in Mangere and 40 per cent in Otara had been reported in Hansard. Mr Wellington’s suggestion came after those figures were known.

"A police State to keep the masses of poor down and at the same time discriminate against racial groups seems hardly in accordance with a democracy,” said Mr Bach.

The Minister also wished to halt funding for a specially developed literacy Srogramme in the area, said Ir Bach. .

“He knows that there is a close correlation between illiteracy and delinquency,” he said.

It was that sort of action which could set off the “conflagration” in Auckland predicted by a former mayor, Sir Dove-Meyer Robinson, Mr Bach said. “Should this occur the minor savings in funds Mr Wellington hopes to make would be wiped out overnight with everlasting social costs,” he said. The cause of vandalism in schools was unemployment, Mr Bach said. Solving the unemployment problem was the cure for many of the vandalism problems. He said he had a first-hand knowledge of South Auckland’s problems, as he had taught there and had beep raised there.