Mrs Hercus to visit U.K., Europe, Aust.

Press, 4 April 1985, Page 28

Mrs Hercus to visit U.K., Europe, Aust.

PA Wellington The Minister of Social Welfare and Police, Mrs Hercus, will leave New Zealand today for a month overseas. Her trip would include visits to Britain, Sweden, France and Australia, said an itinerary from her office. On Friday, Mrs Hercus will address the New Zealand Connection Group at a luncheon in Los Angeles, the same group addressed by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, in February. In Sweden, Mrs Hercus will hold discussions on social welfare and police related matters, and attend a seminar on peace and disarmament hosted by Mrs Maj Britt Theorin, Swedish Ambassador for Disarmament, who visited New Zealand earlier this year. The seminar, to be attended by about 30 women Parliamentarians from round the world, is in preparation for the United Nations conference in Nairobi in July to mark the end of the Decade for Women.

In Britain, Mrs Hercus will hold discussions with the police, focussing on community policing. She also will meet the Police Complaints Board. She will hold extensive discussions with the British Department of Health and Social Services, looking at assistance to lower-income groups and the elderly. In France, Mrs Hercus will meet the O.E.C.D. working party which is looking at the treatment of women in social security and related taxation sys-

terns. In Australia, she will examine the Hawke Government’s affirmative action programme in Canberra before attending the sixteenth annual conference of the Council of Social Welfare Ministers from Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, to be held in Melbourne on May 2 and 3. Mrs Hercus has proposed, and will open discussion, on two items — child protection and women in welfare. She will return to New Zealand on May 5.