Mr Lange is no Bob Hawke, says P.M.

Press, 23 June 1984, Page 1

Mr Lange is no Bob Hawke, says P.M.

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, yesterday well and truly set up the Labour Party’s leader, Mr Lange, as the main target of his campaign for next month’s election.

With electioneering due to open next week, Sir Robert got in a few warm-up laps in back-to-back press conferences in Melbourne and Sydney by aiming continuous barbs at Mr Lange. He decried comparisons in New Zealand between Mr Lange and the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke, saying that they were not in the same race. He described Mr Lange as once having been a very nice bloke.

Sir Robert kept his hooks into Mr Lange over the incident at the first rugby test between New Zealand and France in Christchurch last week in which the Canterbury Rugby Union accused Mr Lange of votecatching when he walked in front of the stands, while he said he had merely lost his seat.

Sir Robert rubbed in his claims yesterday that the man who wanted to be Prime Minister had not even been able to find his seat at a rugby match, and went on to accuse Mr Lange of taking an interest in the game only for electoral gain. Sir Robert also said he would not retire if he lost next month’s poll, that he

expected to win on July 14, and that he expected to be in office so long that he would probably die there. The key to the vote, he said, would be “Rob’s mob” — the average voters who liked his style, disliked Mr Lange, and who had backed him in the past. “Rob’s mob is what put me into government in 1975,” he said. “They come from every walk of life and they like my style of politics and government... they feel my style is pretty close to the New Zealand idiom.”

It was the support of “Rob’s mob” which killed in its tracks the 1980 move to oust him, and he expected to see it exercise its power again on July 14. “I think this time Rob’s mob will be in evidence again because my principal opponent is not the kind of bloke who appeals to them,” he said. While the other main election issues would be the Government’s ability and the economy, Sir Robert predicted the election would largely come down to personalities.

“I will be basing my campaign not just on the personality but the ability of Mr Lange, but the other three parties are basing their campaigns on the sins of omission and commission of the Prime Minister,” he said.

“For months they have been targeting the Prime Minister, saying what a ter-

rible fellow he is. It’s going to be that sort of a campaign. “Of course, a lot of New Zealanders will agree with them, all the ones that I’ve upset and antagonised like the doctors, the railwaymen, the schoolteachers, and the financiers, but the people I haven’t antagonised are the ordinary people who are at the other side of those issues — and we will see how we go.”

He likened the election to the first rugby test at Christchurch when France came within an ace of snatching the match even though it did not deserve to on the balance of play. “That’s rugby but to a certain extent that’s politics too,” Sir Robert said. “This fellow Lange could come right in the last 10 minutes, but I wouldn’t put any money on it.”

Sir Robert said it would be a close election and he was not over-confident, but later when asked if he had thought about tactics for being in opposition should the poll go against him, he said, “No, I expect to win.” The election would hinge on about 15 marginal seats, but he dismissed the results of the latest opinion poll which put Labour well ahead of National, saying it had been taken within 24 hours of the election’s being called, and attitudes had since settled down.

In Sydney, he produced an analysis of the poll figures

which had him ahead of Mr Lange in trustworthiness, leadership, and competence — “now this is the killer” — where he was backed by 60 per cent of those polled compared with 21 per cent for Mr lange.

Mr Lange “used to be a nice bloke” when he entered Parliament, said Sir Robert. “He was a police court lawyer and used to go round defending petty criminals for no fee — this was his thing,” he said. “A huge fellow he was then, he cut a bit off his stomach and he came down, but he was a very, very nice fellow, the best after-dinner speaker I have ever come across, a brilliant off-the-cuff speaker. “Then he got into the House, got ambition, and his personality deteriorated. He is not the same fellow. They made him leader and as soon as the pressures of leadership came on we found out his deficiencies.” Sir Robert decried the comparisons being drawn by Labour between Mr Lange and Mr Hawke. The success of Mr Hawke would help him, Sir Robert said.

“Over the next three weeks I propose to put Bob Hawke beside Mr Lange and it’s not difficult to see the difference,” he said.

“Mr Lange is no Bob Hawke — he’s not in the same race.

“I think he’s making a tactical mistake. The public are not fools. Look at the

football match the other day. What a stupid, insensitive thing to do; they can see it’s just play-acting.” Another Labour tactical blunder, he said, was bringing in two expatriate New Zealand journalists who had helped the South Australian Premier, Mr John Bannon, to win his state election. The Australian Labour Party’s image could not be transposed to New Zealand, and Sir Robert predicted that New Zealanders would resent any attempt to do so.

In a later interview, Sir Robert said that to win the election Labour would “have to do the impossible” and show that Mr Lange was capable of leading a government. He said that Labour’s position would be stronger if the former party leader, Sir Wallace Rowling, or its president and aspiring member of Parliament, Mr Jim Anderton, were at the helm.

“I think they have realised they made a step backwards when they got rid of Rowling,” he said.

“Anderton is a bit of an unknown quantity, but he is certainly more practical than Lange. When he talks he talks about issues in a practical way rather than simply orating. Sir Robert dismissed any Sect of either Social t or the New Zealand Party winning seats, saying it was now a two-way fight. Chief among other issues to play a role in voting

would be the A.N.Z.U.S. treaty and the visits of nuclear warships. “Mr Lange is going to have to explain why his policy is different from that of the Australian Labour Party,” he said. Sir Robert said the Australians would allow ships with nuclear weapons to pass through their ports in certain circumstances, while the New Zealand Labour Party would not.

Speaking on retirement, Sir Robert said, “I wouldn’t think so. Jim McLay is a good bloke and I think he and I will be leading the National Party win, lose, or draw for some considerable time yet.

"I’m just a boy compared with many other politicians around the , world,” Sir Robert said. Asked if he would become the type of Prime Minister who died at his desk, he said, “I think I would expect to die in office, but not for a while. To keep fit I charge round the corridors of Parliament Buildings at a rapid rate. I’m as fit as can be from here (his chest) up.” Asked if he still enjoyed election campaigns, Sir Robert said, “I think I don’t look forward to them any longer. I used to look forward to election campaigns — loved it — but now I think I am going off them. As you get older some of the things that excited you when you were younger don’t attract you any more.”