Union thrust at Labour conference

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 20

Union thrust at Labour conference

By

PATRICIA HERBERT,

in Wellington

Anxiety about the pain of economic adjustment and its political cost is expected to set the mood at the Labour Party’s conference, which begins in Wellington tomorrow. Last year the Left-wing could not muster sufficient support to push through its demand for a Uturn on economic policies but it succeeded in getting across the message that widespread discomfort was resulting from the strategy being pursued.

Since then interest rates and inflation have begun to drop; the last wage round put more money in workers’ pockets; and there is the anticipation of income tax cuts on October 1.

The party president, Ms Margaret Wilson, believes these developments have created a greater measure of acceptance in the party for the Douglas programme — an acceptance which is reflected in the remits which, although critical, are not as strident as they were in 1985. The same broad concerns remain. The goods and services tax is tacitly accepted but the Government is asked in one remit not to levy it on local body rates or on school committee donations and, in another, to levy it only on luxury Items. Other remits question fundamentals of present policy: the full-funding of the internal deficit, the deregulation of the finance industry, the floating of the dollar, the opening of the New Zealand market to import competition, and the tight control of the money supply. Nevertheless, all the regional conferences except Wellington have endorsed the Government’s basic approach to the economy.

Certainly the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, is more relaxed about the economic debate at the conference this year than he was last year, when he worked hard to secure support for GST.

He is likely to put most of his effort this year — and to come under most- sustained attack — over the commercialisation of the State sector and, a related issue, the sale of shares in Stateowned enterprises.

The proposed sales, particularly of Bank of New Zealand shares, will be hotly debated because they strike at the heart of Labour philosophy. The same applies to the Cabinet’s announced desire to remove the controls on foreign ownership of land in New Zealand.

A remit opposing this is on the agenda and is tipped to pass, giving the party’s Primary Producers’ Council, led by the member of Parliament for Gisborne, Mr Allan Wallbank, the support it needs to block the proposal. Should that happen, it would be a significant defeat for Mr Douglas. The party’s Left-wing seems less organised this year than it was last year but is convening in Wellington on the eve of the conference to discuss the remits and whether to set up a formal network for the dissemination of alternative ideas.

The meeting has been organised by the member of Parliament for Sydenham and former party president, Mr Jim Anderton. He sent invitations to all branches, electorate committees, and affiliated unions and is expecting a reasonably large attendance, particularly from unionists.

For the trade union movement, the conference title — “The Future is Ours” — holds a special irony. Early next month the Government is expected to announce the policy decisions emerging from its Green Paper review of industrial relations.

These are expected to deliver some changes sought by the unions, among them the removal of restrictions on union amalgamation and on bargaining scope. Those "credits” are expected to be outweighed by the “debits” — moves to dislodge workers covered by secondary agreements from awards and give workers a choice as to which union they join. Although yet to be announced formally, these changes have been tipped widely and the unions have been campaigning actively against them. They regard the party as their strongest ally in this campaign and their strategy is to use the conference to tie the Government’s hands.

Undoubtedly they will carry the delegates with them, probably without much dissent. Whether this works to defeat the proposed reforms is an entirely different matter; but it must place the Government in an embarassing position to have the party pass overwhelmingly a host of resolutions which, among other things, oppose any move toward a deregulated or flexible labour market, and call for the retention and improvement of union membership provisions. Ms Wilson says there is a lot of support for these remits — an observation borne out by the fact that they are being presented under the names of all six of the party’s regional divisions.

For the unions which created the Labour Party as a political arm, the subject is a source of

considers hie bitterness and the debate is bound to reflect this.

It is perhaps to blunt these tensions that Ms Wilson will emphasfeo in her opening presidential address that compromise is an integral part of Labour’s 70year history — the implication being that the strains wracking the party in this time of upheaval are not new and can be

absorbed. She expects it to be a businesslike conference, with the attention focused on gearing up to the next General Election. Mr Anderton agrees. He says the discussion will be vigorous but hard-nosed rather than divisive.

"We want to stay in office and we want a Labour Party at the end of the day,” he says.