Summit consensus call

Press, 29 August 1984, Page 34

Summit consensus call

Next month’s economic summit conference needs to be “held in a spirit of openness, clarity and integrity,” according to the president of the New Zealand Society of Accountants, Mr Malcolm McCaw, who will be one of the summit’s participants. At the presentation of the society’s annual award for public companies Mr McCaw suggested the conference needed to achieve a national consensus as a basis for a new beginning. The Labour Government was making a commitment to a new style of manage-

ment of New Zealand based on understanding and agreement. “The success or otherwise of that initiative will rest to a large extent with the sectors represented at the conference and on the response of the wider community,” Mr McCaw said. “If the selfishness, confusion and insularity that has marked so much of our national life in recent years continues, there is clearly no prospect of any national consensus being achieved. “But if there is a willingness to cross entrenched barriers and clearly demonstrate to a battered and

confused nation that there is strength of commitment and excitement about the future, there will be a basis for a new beginning.” The society’s award went to Lion Breweries for its 1983 annual report, and Mr McCaw paid tribute to the company for a willingness to demonstrate openness, clarity and integrity with its shareholders and also for adherence to high standards in business.

“If those qualities are demonstrated by all New Zealanders through the crucial months ahead, then we .will have taken a giant stride,” said Mr McCaw.