New Zealand Party policy

Press, 29 May 1984, Page 16

New Zealand Party policy

Sir—The latest in entertainment must surely be the comic opera being staged by the New Zealand Party: producers, Dryden and Jones. Comic, because it’s unbelievable that any organisation could produce a financial policy, put it to the electors of this country, and then discover it is $7 billion in error. We all should thank Mr Dryden for his courage in doing what had to be done, otherwise we might have had another political cover-up. — Yours, etc., J. D. GRIBBEN. May 28, 1984. Sir — I endorse comments by New Zealand Party supporters m “The Press" of May 24, referring to fair leading article of May 21. It is

interesting that, apart from one or two economists who have questioned the time periods for implementing the policy, no constructive criticism from other political parties has been forthcoming. I believe this is because either they are ignoring the New Zealand Party in the hope that it will go away, or they find the economic proposals to be totally workable ana are, therefore, unable to argue with them. — Yours, etc., M. E. CLEMENTS. May 24, 1984. Sir,—About two months ago I said in this column that some of Bob Jones’s economic statements are nonsense and now Gordon Dryden has decided that the Jones party’s latest economic policy is unworkable. I tried to analyse that economic policy, but found that difficult, because nonsense is impossible to analyse. A lot of it sounds like straightforward Friedmanism, but that would result in an exchange rate higher than that we now have, and they talk of lowering it. In other places it sounds like a parody of Social Credit, with some key Social Credit ideas left out. The result is a mess. It must be the silliest economic package any significant political party in this country has produced in the last 10 years. — Yours, etc., J. C. RING. May 26, 1984.