Party membership plan

Press, 28 January 1984, Page 6

Party membership plan

PA Wellington The Labour Party wants 125,000 members by May. The party’s executive at a meeting yesterday approved the allocation of about $BO,OOO for organisers in marginal seats. The party’s president, Mr J. P. Anderton, told a press conference yesterday that on February 18 Labour would launch a membership drive, called Operation Groundswell, with a target of 125,000 members by May. Mr Anderton said Labour membership was now 100,000. “We will concentrate on most of the key marginal seats,” he said. “All of the

senior organisational and Parliamentary members will be enrolled in that membershp drive.” It was not a target which could be reached easily, but was worth going fori “If you break it (the figure) down between 95 electorates, you are talking about an average of, say, 200 to 250 in each electorate. “It is attainable if everyone works hard,” he said. All key marginal seats, 20 of them, should have either a full-time or part-time paid campaign organiser by April. It would be the first time in Mr Anderton’s experience that the party had funded

such organisers from New Zealand council level, and was an indication of the strength of organisational resources. The allocation was “in round figures, somewhere in the order of $70,000 to $BO,OOO. By the end of April all the key marginal seats should in fact have either a full-time or part-time organiser on a paid basis,” he said.