‘New generation of leaders, new ideas’

Press, 30 July 1985, Page 8

‘New generation of leaders, new ideas’

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

National had not only to give responsibility to a new generation of leaders, but embrace a new generation of ideas, said the party’s deputy leader, Mr Jim Bolger. He gave delegates much philosophic material to ponder and pass on in their electorates. National needed to avoid becomming captive to a single group, he said. It needed to attract and accommodate a broad crosssection of people to its cause.

Mr Bolger singled out individual rights and the enhancement of families as the core of its aim. He was received in attentive silence by delegates for most of his speech, and gained a rousing response only on those occasions when he attacked the Labour Government. “While David Lange struts the world oozing concern for the down-trodden he refuses to see the new poor. he is deliberately creating at home, and shame on him,” Mr Bolger said to prolonged applause. He also told delegates it

was a tragedy that New Zealand was so divided over sports contacts with South Africa. He would not retreat from National’s policy on sports contacts, but admitted that this issue had absorbed too much energy and caused too much social division in recent years. Mr Bolger’s speech was not one calculated to raise enthusiasm. It painted too sombre a picture of “the mess the Labour Government is making of the economy.” However, it did hold their attention with its definition of some of the problems facing National.