Labour eyes parochialism

Press, 30 May 1985, Page 14

Labour eyes parochialism

The four main parties will besiege voters with a wide range of issues, tactics and styles in the campaign for the Timaru seat. Our Parliamentary reporter, MICHAEL HANNAH, recently interviewed the leaders of the Labour, National, Social Credit, and New Zealand parties for their views on how the campaign would be fought. Readers should note that the Social Credit Party cannot use its new name, the New Zealand Democratic Party, until this name is officially registered. This is not expected until after the by-election on June 15.

Psychology is likely to play a big part in Labour’s campaign to retain the Timaru seat, which it has held for the last 57 years.

Talk to the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, about the issues in the campaign, and he talks of the way Timaru, voters think, rather than of the issues he may like them to think about.

Appealing to Timaruvian independence, or parochialism “in every good use of that word,” as Mr Lange puts it, has been a big part of Labour's campaign strategy.

It has meant avoiding too many public hall meetings, which, he has quipped, attract only “the curious, the committed, and the should-be-committed.” Instead, “intimate communication” will be the order of the day, rather than “contrived confrontation in public places.”

All members of Labour’s caucus will have visited Timaru before polling day, meeting special interest groups to explain Government policy.

Labour is keen to restrict its campaign to Timaru issues and interests. “When we came to think about this election campaign. I decided we should make absolutely certain that we did not use the campaign as some sort of litmus test for Government,” Mr Lange said.

"It had to be a Timaru campaign,” he said. Timaru people, he believes, are deeply suspicious of “Wellington-type solutions."

“They are actually somewhat scornful of its ability to deliver great pleasure, but they would attribute to it a very great ability to deliver pain,” he said. For this reason, the campaign had to be fought “for Timaru,” and not for the Government’s image in Mount Albert or Mount Wellington. According to Mr Lange, Timaru is “a parochial electorate, in every good use of that word. “It is an electorate which is of pretty self-reliant, rather robust people, and they don’t expect any free lunches, or cheap rides.” For sure, they may not enjoy watching prices rise, interest rates soar and wages lag behind. But Mr lange maintains that Timaruvians are “long haulers,” said Labour’s canvassing showed that they are prepared to give the Government a “fair go.” “They don’t actually think that you should cast a verdict on a Government on

the basis of 10 months in office,” he said. “They really do think still that the Government should be able to be given a chance to deliver on the issues.”

Perhaps the biggest risk to the Government is that its traditional supporters simply will not vote. "Oh yes,” Mr Lange concedes" “That’s the whole strategy of it, which is why we haven’t been going round yodelling on street corners, or holding public meetings, but making sure that we have an organisation which knows what it’s about, identify that vote, and give all the people a chance to vote at the appropriate time.”

Heading his list of issues the Government will campaign on is employment, in which he claims the Government has “really quite a spectacular record.” Official figures bear out his claim, though Mr Lange ignores a suggestion that migration from Timaru has also contributed to the de-

cline in Timaru’s registered unemployed. The drought also features as an election issue, with its implications for the local freezing works and the local economy.

The candidates, Mr Lange believes, will feature as an issue, with “strong personal assessments” of them being made by voters. “That is a local issue, in the sense that they are not actually just voting Labour or National. They are actually people who, more than a more cynical metropolitan seat, would actually look at the candidate that is offering. That is why we signalled the essential of having someone who was a local identifier.”

Labour got its “local identifer” in Miss Jan Walker, a Rotorua legal officer born and bred in Timaru. They also got a candidate whose personal, liberal views on homosexual law reform have become an issue already. Opposition parties have maintained that Miss Walker’s views on such a moral issue do not match those of a conservative, provincial electorate. Labour has replied that she will canvass her electorate for the views she must have as a member of Parliament. The fact that Miss Walker has spent much of her working life in other provincial cities — Palmerston North and Rotorua — is regarded by Labour as an asset rather than the handicap opposition parties claim it is.

All the same, the party is keen to see her identified as a local candidate.

“That is why we very deliberately kept a period of just under a fortnight from the time of the candidate’s selection, to when I first went and made a speech," Mr Lange said. Leadership is another issue he is looking forward to fighting on. He believes Timaru people resent party leaders trying to “big-note it” in Timaru, and maintains a speech by the National Party leader, Mr McLay, which included a “tirade of criticism” of Mr Lange, would not have gone down well in Timaru. A “wild card” in the campaign, according to Mr Lange, is the activities of the former National Party leader, Sir Robert Muldoon, and his links with a rebel group, the Sunday Club.

Also, there is’ the influence of the New Zealand Party. While early canvasses showed little interest in third parties, Mr Lange said this did not matter at this stage, as the New Zealand Party leader, Mr Bob Jones, had shown he could draw “the curious and the persuadable” in a short campaign.

“In Timaru, that’s important, because the Labour vote in Timaru has remained resolute and not up for grabs. “If he puts up a good showing and the opposed-to-Labour vote squelches round the place, including some to him, that’s good,” Mr Lange said.