Labour has to stay for several terms — claim

Press, 14 May 1984, Page 9

Labour has to stay for several terms — claim

Labour not only had to win this year’s General Election, but had to stay in Government for at least three or four terms, the party’s president, Mr Jim Anderton, said in Christchurch on Saturday. Speaking at the opening

of the Northern South Island Labour regional conference at the University of Canterbury, Mr Anderton said that the only thing worse than losing the election for Labour would be winning for only one term. People would expect

“enormous returns” from a Labour government. It coud only achieve long-term change if it was in office for several terms. “We must win a positive mandate to change this country. It is only with that kind of support that our

base will be substantial enough to keep us in power,” said Mr Anderton.

If Labour won only because there was an antiGovernment vote, it would not have the kind of support needed to remain in office. Labour had to win this election and put its policies in place. It also had to stay in Government for at least three or four terms.

“We have to have a party machine that will keep us there, instead of abandoning it while we are there as we did in 1972 to 1975,” he said. Mr Anderton said there was a mood for change throughout the country and Labour would inflict a crushing defeat on the National Party. In his experience, Labour had never been better prepared to fight an election that this year. There was an effective and co-operative link between the party and the trade union movement. In his speech, Mr Anderton made a clear reference to the disagreement he had had with the Labour leader, Mr Lange, at the Auckland regional conference two weeks ago, when he commented on economic thinking within the party. To laughter and applause from the delegates, he said that he would not announce Labour’s economic policy. However, he said he would continue to say “those things which, as president of the party, I believe have to be said for the sake of the party and the country.” The party’s Deputy Leader, Mr Palmer, told the conference that a Labour government had to improve the lot of average New Zealanders.

“Labour is the party of the ordinary person, the little person. A better life for ordinary people is what we are about,” he said.

New Zealanders were developing a justifiable feeling that they were not as well off as they ought to be. It was scandalous that the New Zealand economy had done so badly when it was a country of such bountiful resources.

“New Zealand needs a Labour government to remove the social injustice which afflicts the country. The people at the bottom of the heap have not had it worse in my lifetime — Maoris, Pacific Islanders, young people, women and low-income people,” he said.

A Labour government was needed to stop the drop in living standards, help the unemployed, improve access to medical treatment, end the housing crisis and provide open government. It had to emphasise New Zealand as a multi-cultural society.