Values proposes party merger

Press, 22 May 1986, Page 29

Values proposes party merger

PA New Plymouth Values and Mana Motuhake parties may join forces to contest next year’s General Election. This was proposed in the main remit from the Values Party’s national conference, which wound up at Koninl Lodge, Mount Egmont, on Sunday.

The Values leader, Ms Janet Roborgh, said her party and Mana Motuhake had a lot in common.

“It is a way for us to get more votes, but we are also the only two political parties which are looking at racial harmony,” she said. “We don’t expect to gain a seat at next year’s

General Election but our long-term goal is a work-ing-together of the two parties.”

Ms Roborgh said that a Mana Motuhake representative at the conference, Ms Eva Rickard, would take the liaison message back to her party. “There is a most probable chance that our two parties will come together,” she said.

“No Values candidate would stand for the same seat as a Mana Motuhake representative. “We will urge supporters of both parties to get in behind whatever candidate, either Values or Mana Motuhake, is

standing for an electorate.”

She said details of the “accommodation” had still to be worked out. "We are looking at ways of getting round the two-party system,” Ms Roborgh said. The Values Party is also to have a change of name; it will now be known as Values — the Greens Party of Aotearoa.

Other remits from the three-day national conference sought more State intervention to control the exchange rate, an increase in the price of electricity, and an increase in the capital gains tax, set at the same rate as income tax.