Mr Lange ‘not embarrassed’

Press, 18 May 1984, Page 4

Mr Lange ‘not embarrassed’

Parliamentary reporter The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Lange, said yesterday that he was not embarrassed by a statement by the president of the Labour Party, Mr J. P. Anderton, concerning his methods of breaking the wage freeze. Mr Lange said the statements had “nothing to do with me at all.” Nor did he wish Mr Anderton had not made the statement, which was not cleared with him before it was made. However, Mr Lange said it was perfectly clear that employers had used the methods suggested by Mr

Anderton to break the freeze, and there was no novelty in the suggestion. “The second thing is that you could probably assume that people have looked at Mr Anderton's plant and have not been able to find any illegality in it,” he said. Mr Lange added that there would be something wrong with the Department of Labour if Mr Anderton’s plant had not been inspected in this way. He did not know what Mr Anderton’s arrangements were and had only read in newspapers what had been

said about it. Mr Lange said that Labour's position on the policy of the matter was clear: “We, on becoming the Government, will have a return to wage bargaining. We will have an understanding with employers and unions as to the limits, and there will be the chance for individual employers to give appropriate compensation to the people whom they value.”

Mr Lange said this would not mean “open slather” but a "form of justice” not by people “contriving to manipulate the system."