Keynote issues for Labour

Press, 9 May 1984, Page 2

Keynote issues for Labour

Trade union relations and party financing will be two of the keynote issues at the Labour Party conference in Christchurch this week-end. About 150 delegates and observers will attend the annual conference of the Northern South Island region of the Labour Party at the University of Canterbury. The two-day conference will open on Saturday morning with the party president, Mr J. P. Anderton, and the Deputy Leader, Mr Palmer, speaking on the theme of Labour winning this year’s General Election. The party leader, Mr David Lange, will speak to the conference just before it closes on Sunday afternoon. Three of the keynote addresses to the gathering will be held in committee. These will be discussions and reports on Labour Party financing and publicity. The speakers will be Messrs

Simon Walker, Mike Williams and John Hercus. On Sunday, much of the conference will be devoted to speeches on relations between the Labour Party and trade unions. The member of Parliament for Papanui, Mr M. K. Moore, will speak about how trade unions can help Labour win the election. The vice-president of the Federation of Labour, Mrs Sonja Davies, will speak about why trade unions and the Labour Party need each other. About 35 remits will be debated. One calls for a Labour government to change the electoral laws so that members of Parliament who resign or are expelled from their party will have to stand down from Parliament. As an alternative, it suggests that members of Parliament should be required to stand down if 50

per cent of their constituents sign a petition calling for it. Other remits on local and central government call for local body reform and a four-year Parliamentary term. The Greymouth branch of the Labour Party has asked for a review of the present Government policy of popu-lation-based funding for hospital boards. Rangiora has suggested that the domestic fire and general business section of the State Insurance Office be separated and set up as a co-operative with premiums based on true cost. Remits from the West Coast ask a Labour government to set up a coke works on the West Coast, to investigate the orange roughy fishery off the West Coast, and to encourage the development of property owning co-operatives. Another remit calls on a

Labour government' to urgently enforce a fisheries management scheme for Tasman Bay. In education, remits ask for support for the abolition of the University Entrance examination and for secondary school curricula to include work experience programmes. Others suggest the introduction of a four-term academic year and the implementation of the Johnson report on human relationships. The Nelson branch wants the next Labour government to legislate to form a nuclear weapons-free zone, in New Zealand and to ban any foreign military vessels and aircraft which refuse to confirm or deny whether they carry nuclear weapons. Another remit calls on a Labour Government to take a "serious look” at having fewer repeat programmes on television.