Super, ‘vulnerable point’

Press, 26 December 1984, Page 4

Super, ‘vulnerable point’

PA Auckland National superannuation is the Government’s most vulnerable point, says the Prime Minister, Mr Lange. In an interview yesterday Mr Lange said the Opposition could have “done” his Administration several. times since the election in July. He said the Opposition, beset by internal wrangles, had failed to capitalise on issues over which Labour was most vulnerable. Mr Lange said the Budget supertax on the national superannuation of higher in-come-earners was Labour’s weakest point. When the Government was at its most vulnerable, the Opposition had thrown lifelines by its failure to

state a definite policy of its own. “National superannuation, cunningly exploited by an Opposition, could be dangerous. Properly handled by a Government it will be understood. We are now developing a better understanding of it, and the end of civilisation as we know it has not happened,” said Mr Lange. Asked to list the successes and failures of his Government’s first five months, Mr Lange said there had not been as many debits as there should have been. “I am still surprised, given the pace of developments, that something did not go wildly apart. The vehicle was going so fast that a wheel could have

flown off." Obvious successes were the handling of the devaluation crisis and the Economic Summit Conference. Another less publicised success was the move from a regulated economy to free wage bargaining. “The situation where we had a wage bargaining round within acceptable limits in the course of a very few months was quite the most significant achievement in terms of government and skills,” said Mr Lange. “We spent hours and days and nights of negotiating and we did not take the easy option. We did not regulate, we did not legislate. It would have been far easier to have reached for a pen than a telephone,

which would have let a lot of people off the hook.” Referring to the A.N.Z.U.S. agreement he said: “The public of New Zealand do not see our nuclear policy as being inconsistent with our A.N.Z.U.S. policy.” If the election had been held normally, he said, his Government would have had seven or eight months in which to prepare a Budget. “It is not surprising that we developed a bit of a wheel wobble on that one. We will get the wheels aligned.” Mr Lange said the Cabinet was working well, hard and independently, with him as chairman, as he had wished.