M.P.’s post secure

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 1

M.P.’s post secure

The Avon Labour electorate committee’s vote of no confidence in its member of Parliament, Mrs Mary Batchelor, should not affect her position as the candidate for the seat, according to the party’s president, Mr Jim Anderton. Mr Anderton said from Auckland yesterday that the vote of no confidence was “a personal expression of concern” about Mrs Batchelor’s action in attending the wedding of the renegade member for Sydenham, Mr John Kirk, last vear.

If the Labour Party’s New Zealand executive was advised of the vote, it would be discussed. However, he had not received official notification about it yet and he said it would have nothing to do with Mrs Batchelor’s position as the Labour candidate for the Avon seat.

“On the face of it, it seems to me to be the reaction of particular people to a particular act which is a personal rather than a constitutionally political one,” he said. Members of Parliament

should be aware of the feelings of their electorates and should know best how members would react to their actions. The people of the electorate had a right to their own opinions. Nevertheless, a candidate had been selected and they would campaign to have that candidate elected. The Avon Labour electorate committee passed the motion of no confidence on Monday evening by seven votes to six. The chairman, Mr Lou Burns, abstained. Mrs Batchelor has said

that the seven who supported the move were those who had backed a challenge to her reselection as the Labour candidate last year.

Three other members of Parliament attended Mr Kirk’s wedding in Wellington last - December. They were the Social Credit leader, Mr Beetham; Social Credit’s deputy leader, Mr Garry Knapp; and Mr Brian MacDonell, the Independent member of Parliament for Dunedin Central, who left the Labour Party after he failed to win the selection for Dunedin West last year.