Sir Robert answers critics

Press, 30 May 1985, Page 2

Sir Robert answers critics

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington The former National Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, has given an oblique answer to his critics within the National Party of his continuing to hold mass rallies.

A growing chorus of complaints has been evident at recent National Party divisional conferences that Sir Robert is either (at worst) campaigning to regain the leadership of National or (at best) distracting public attention from National’s new leadership.

But at a meeting of the Lower Hutt Lions Club last evening Sir Robert gave another explanation for his conduct.

He said people who had come out in their thousands to hear him in Christchurch ■ recently represented the heartland of New Zealand. Their attendance in such numbers told him that they wanted reassurance and strong “middle of the road” leadership, putting aside “the frills and the trivia and the sensationalism.” In 1975 he had addressed 6000 people in a South Auckland woolstore — the biggest indoor meeting held in New Zealand — who had come to hear him for the pame reasons that 2400 Christchurch people had turned out on a cold, wet winter’s evening two weeks ago. “The feeling at both meetings was the same, and that surprised me,” Sir Robert said. The audiences, then and now, had been concerned about what they saw happening in their country. It was not just what they saw; they were worried, confused and apprehensive. Sir Robert said they were seeking an analysis of the situation, an explanation of what was happening and what was going wrong, and some words of hope for the future.