Mr Lange uses anecdotes to draw delegates together

Press, 1 September 1986, Page 3

Mr Lange uses anecdotes to draw delegates together

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington Emotion and comtoon sense were mingled judiciously by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, when addressing the annual conference of the Labour Party on Saturday — trying to draw together party threads that were threatening to unravel. His speech was that of a chairman of directors to his shareholders rather than a tub-thumping political oration. It was an appropriate response to delegates who were touchy about Government economic, industrial, employment and social welfare policies. the two high spots of his speech for delegates were personal anecdotes, introduced to illustrate the theme of “belonging.” He sought to unify delegates by emphasising what united the Labour movement — such as its commitment to the underprivileged — rather than what divides factions within it now that it is the Government ; “Conferences were easier when we were in Opposition,” Mr Lange said. “There was always someone else to blame. Now Labour has to measure its actions in Government against, the standards the Labour movement has set over 70 years.”

He personalised the reasons the Government had for taking external examinations out of the school system. “I have a son (Roy)

who is 15 this year,” he said. “All the miseries of being 15 are compounded in his case by his belief that he will not pass School Certificate and that he will let his mother and father down. “There is nothing we can say to him about how much we value him and what; he has achieved which makes any difference to him. “He agonises because he thinks he will embarrass me if he fails School Certificate,” Mr Lange said. “This sense of impending judgment and inevitable disappointment is reflected in households throughout the country.” The Government did not say it was wrong to encourage academic excellence. It did say that 15-year-olds should not be made to turn on a spit of other people’s standards, or be excluded from further education and training because they could not pass an academic examination. His other anecdote was about an old friend he had visited in hospital and given several spoonsful of ice-cream to several hours before she died. His point was that she had died in a 43-year-old prefab in the heart of New Zealand’s biggest and richest city. People dying in such conditions had little interest in the size of the deficit as a proportion of gross domestic product But unless the problems created by the deficit were dealt with, the

Government could not provide the standards of health care or meet its commitment to full employment, or do any of the things it wanted to do. He discarded the old Labour slogan of “equality of opportunity” in favour of a new one — “genuine opportunity.” The great tragedy for a Labour Government wanting to deliver genuine opportunity was the crisis of confidence in the Public Service, Mr Lange. It was a crisis that had been building for many years, forming a vicious circle. When people saw that public services were not delivering, that performance was poor and productivity faltering, it was hardly surprising that they were more and more reluctant to pay taxes for them. The conference had begun in a mood critical of the economic and industrial performance of the Government Mr Lange’s address was couched in terms to set a new mood — of what the Labour Party was and :the theme of “belonging;.”