Govt tap to ‘turn on for election’

Press, 21 March 1983, Page 6

Govt tap to ‘turn on for election’

The Government would deliberately and cynically manipulate economic policy to create a favourable election impression, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Mr G. W. R. Palmer, told the party’s Canterbury area conference in Christchurch on Saturday. “We must be on our guard against that,” he said.

Mr Palmer said that although the latest opinion polls showed that Labour had a 13 per cent lead over National, a lot could happen before November, 1984. “Come election year a number of things are going to occur. The tap will be turned on. Money will become available where none is available now,” he said. “Wage-price freezes will disappear. We will be told

the economy is on the road to recovery, whether it is or not. There will be an air of optimism developed by the Government’s pumping money into the economy to show a short-term artificial improvement, hoping that the public will believe that things have really changed,” he said. A Heylen Eyewitness News opinion poll released last week showed that Labour had 52 per cent support, National 39 per cent, and Social Credit, 9 per cent. These figures mean that Labour Party support has increased 12 per cent since the 1981 General Election. “This year we have localbody elections. People will be watching the performance of the Labour Party in those elections,” Mr Palmer

said. “In Christchurch, the performance is already good. It must improve. We must do well to keep our standing high. That will require hard work.”

“The economic situation in New Zealand is now so serious that it will take a great deal to fix it up. We must not condition the public to expect rapid improvement, because there will be no rapid improvement. We have to convince people that our policies will work in time and that they are the right policies,” Mr Palmer said. “We must not give the impression that the economic ills from which we suffer will be put right in three months. The truth is they will not be put right in three years,” he said.