Labour patches up its differences

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 1

Labour patches up its differences

Parliamentary reporter The Labour Party yesterday patched up differences between its leader, Mr Lange, and the party president, Mr J. P. Anderton, with a show of confidence in winning this year’s election. Mr Lange emerged from a party caucus meeting yesterday morning, refusing to hold a post-mortem examination on the difference that had arisen between himself and Mr Anderton over a speech Mr Anderton made in Auckland last week-end.

Instead, Mr Lange reaffirmed that an agreement between the two leaders,

restricting their respective roles, still stood.

This agreement, which prevented Mr Anderton from talking on policy issues and Mr Lange from speaking on organisation, was being “honoured,” Mr Lange said. He declined to say whether the agreement had been honoured last weekend, when Mr Anderton chastised the party for its inability to get its message across to the public, and more recently, when he spoke out on the party’s economic policy.

“That’s a matter which would seem to be outside the terms of the agree-

ment,” Mr Lange said, adding, “but I want to give you instead not a party divided, but a party which is extraordinarily united.” Mr Lange said the caucus had confirmed that the tackling of unemployment was the “number one” economic priority for an incoming Labour government.

“That’s number one, not whether the president or the leader has said or done something,” he said. Asked whether Mr Anderton had jeopardised Labour’s electoral chances with public statements this week, Mr Lange said: “He won’t any more.”

Mr Lange said Mr Anderton affirmed the agreement limiting his right to talk on policy matters. Moreover, Mr Anderton had not named individuals in the Labour Party — as Mr Lange had asked him to do — who were said to favour an increase in unemployment to help cure inflation. “Mr Anderton does not see his speech as being an attack on specific individuals and does not name them,” he said. Mr Lange said Mr Anderton was an “extraordinarily good president when it comes to organisation.

“He has a particular forte in that and he will be

directing his attention to that,” he said. Asked if Mr Anderton had been told to do this, Mr Lange replied: “That is the charter, the mandate of the party. It is the wish of the caucus. The president knows that.” Mr Anderton was to consult him first before he spoke on policy issues, according to the terms of the agreement, Mr Lange said. He described as “bizarre” a suggestion that because Mr Anderton would be a candidate in the election (for the seat of Sydenham), he was entitled to speak on policy. “Candidates in the Labour

Party articulate Labour Party policy and let no candidate of the Labour Party dream that he or she has the right to create our policy. None does. If anyone does, they’re not Labour candidates,” he said. Mr Anderton said in Christchurch last evening that he had no comment on the caucus meeting yesterday or on whether his speech in Auckland had breached the agreement with. Mr Lange on their respective roles. • “I am in no doubt about the role of the party leader or my own role as president, and I will just continue my job as president.”