Mr Lange berates Sir Robert

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 8

Mr Lange berates Sir Robert

PA Wellington The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said last evening that he had received several letters from National members of Parliament congratulating him on his handling of the devaluation situation after the election. Mr Lange said the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Robert Muluoon, was an embarrassment to his colleagues. No one was prepared to stand up and say that Sir Robert had behaved responsibly during the week after the election, he said. There was not one member who was “anything but appalled” by Sir Robert’s television appearances that week. He had been engaged in a “swaggering, self-deluded, escapist fantasy”.

Mr Lange said the Opposition had been “decimated and routed” by the election. “They are back to their old tricks — talk about the war, talk about the Japanese, talk about the Federation of Labour, talk about the Socialist Unity Party, talk about A.N.Z.U.S. — and that seems to be the sum total of their contribution to public life in this country.” Mr Lange said his Government was taking the necessary steps to get the New Zealand economy back in order and “they are going to be accompanied by disadvantages”. “We are asking New Zealanders to think about what we want in New Zealand and for New Zealand,” Mr Lange said. His Government would not be put off ideas just because they had

not been tried before. “We are going to state what our objectives are, and our objectives in economic policy are very simply to make a living,” he said. “We are going to allow a proper allocation of our resources. We are going to maximise New Zealand’s income and we will see that all New Zealanders who want to, have access to a decent standard of living and the right to creative work. “Our monetary policy will have to make devaluation succeed,” said Mr Lange. “We will see a reduction in inflationary pressures. In the medium term a tight monetary policy will help prevent a rate of inflation that would erode our com-

petitive edge gained by the devaluation.” The Government would concentrate on sound, longterm economic management, he said, not the “fin-ger-in-dike regulation” sysstem practised by the previous Administration. The immediate challenge before next month’s Economic Summit Conference was reaching agreement on long-term, wage-fixing measures. Mr Lange said that the closing of the New Delhi High Commission in India had been done by the National Government in spite. It was not correct that the closing had been recommended by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for economic reasons, he said.

The National Government had decided it wanted to open a post in Mexico, told the Foreign Affairs Ministry to find the money, “and out of a range of options, they in the National Party clouted India because (Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi had stood up on an issue of principle against the then Prime Minister (Sir Robert Muldoon). “That kind of petty re-venge-taking is going to stop," Mr Lange said. The Labour Government would have a new emphasis on the Pacific in its inters national diplomacy. It was time to stop the obsession with exclusive European diplomacy, Mr Lange said.