Support from Bob Jones

Press, 10 September 1984, Page 2

Support from Bob Jones

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Encouragement and support for Labour’s economic policies has come from the leader of the New Zealand Party, Mr Bob Jones. He told its Wellington division conference in Palmerston North that he wished Messrs Douglas, Caygill, and Lange well. “The disgraceful Muldoon bludgeon of the freeze has done an immense damage to our economy,” Mr Jones said. The Labour Government ought to “bite the bullet” on this and cancel the freeze now while the spirit of cooperation was flowing. Any further delay would only compound the post-freeze explosion.

There was much to be done to restore economic sanity, Mr Jones said. It could all be done tomorrow to the benefit of the nation, and only political considerations stood in the way. Labour’s own Left wing and its union supporters were clearly distressed by the Government’s economic policy which, to date, had been borrowed from the New Zealand Party, especially over tariffs. To date, the Labour Government had acted commendably, Mr Jones said.