Progress by National ‘on the way back’

Press, 30 July 1985, Page 8

Progress by National ‘on the way back’

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

The National Party has emerged refreshed from its annual conference in Christchurch over the last three days. It began with excitement after the self-destruction of the New Zealand Party and its victory in the Timaru by-election, but soon sank into gloom on Friday on hearing of National’s poor showing in the latest public opinion poll, trailing 9 per cent behind Labour. Worse still was the 4 per cent support for its leader, Mr Jim McLay, compared with the 22.2 per cent support for his predecessor, Sir Robert Muldoon, who had stayed away because of efforts to put him out to grass. After the highs and lows of its start on Friday, the conference limped along on Saturday. Mr McLay tried to enthuse delegates, but began his oration that morning with a gaffe, saying that Wairarapa-Bush had taken the Ranfurly Shield from' Canterbury at a match in Christchurch. Mrs Wood struck a more positive note on Saturday morning with her call to delegates to produce new ideas for a new generation of leaders. But it was Mr McLay himself who set the conference on a positive path with

his rousing election rally on Saturday evening. This confirmed his leadership for most delegates who thereafter got on with the business of the conference in a positive manner. Thereafter, the only threat to the conference came from a former National Cabinet Minister, Dr lan Shearer, who was accused by Mrs Wood of trying to “hijack” the conference into a discussion about party loans to its officials — a move she successfully countered in the conference sessions. To the extent that he diverted the news media, however, Dr Shearer was successful in detracting from the air of unity and purpose Mr McLay and Mrs Wood were trying to create. Most of the new ideas National was looking for came from such members of the new generation of leaders as Miss Ruth Richardson (spokeswoman on education), Mr Michael Cox (spokesman on taxation), and Mr lan McLean (spokesman on agriculture). Mr McLay and the deputy leader, Mr Jim Bolger, helped too. But in their attitudes to many of the issues, most delegates remained firmly rooted in the past. They tended to ignore the plea of Mr Philip Burdon (Fendalton) to concentrate on issues calculated to win back

metropolitan electorates for National. On the first day they spent 20 minutes on defence, and confirmed existing policy, while spending 90 minutes on land settlement. This set the pattern for the whole conference. The voice of the city delegations was muted. When delegates spoke of the need for a “broad spectrum” they seemed to be referring to a sheep drench rather than the future of the National Party, so rural were their attitudes. They rejected a nature conservancy, and most speakers explicitly favoured develop-

ment rather than protection of Crown land. The final exhortation to the conference by Mr McLay was that “the National Party is on the way back,” and that was a fair assessment of the three days. But the pre-occupation of delegates with farming matters sometimes suggested it was the annual conference of Federated Farmers and not the National Party. National made some progress “on the way back” — perhaps as much as its most optimistic supporter could have hoped — but it still has a long way to go.