Mr Gair believes his position is stable

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 2

Mr Gair believes his position is stable

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Mr Gair, said yesterday that he did not believe he would be replaced as National’s finance spokesman. He was speaking to students at Canterbury University and replying to a question about a recent suggestion that Sir Robert Muldoon was trying to take the finance spokesmanship away from him. Mr Bolger’s position as Leader of the Opposition remained stable, said Mr Gair. He did not see as helpful the latest “Eye Witness” Heylen opinion poll, which showed that support for Mr Bolger as the preferred Prime Minister had dropped to 8 per cent, while Sir Robert’s support had increased.

“The cohesion in the team is stronger and more constructive than it has been for more than a decade,” he said. The theme of Mr Gair’s speech was the contrast between appearances and realities in the political scene.

About 50 students were in the Shelley Common

Room in the Student Union building to hear him.

Mr Gair said that one of the underlying purposes of education was to encourage people to question what they were told, what they read and saw. He said that the Labour Party’s economic programme, as outlined in its 1984 election manifesto, was very different from the path actually followed. The programme had advocated an investment strategy to restore full employment and reduce the external deficit, but today the country had a higher number of people registered as unemployed than ever before, Mr Gair said.

Despite saying it would gain consensus on the programme of economic and social reconstruction, the Labour Party had divided society.

It had created divisions between metropolitan and provincial New Zealand, and between those at the bottom and top of the income scale, he said. “The Minister of

Finance has made a lot of noise about curbing Government expenditure while, in reality Government spending has increased 21.4 per cent in the 10 months to January this year,” he said. “Only when a Government stops fooling itself can it start the process of addressing the problems so that sometime in the future it can address the real question of appearance and reality.” Mr Gair then addressed a wide range of questions from his audience on such issues as the legalisation of marijuana, the free market economic policy, and the question of allowing ships with nuclear weapons to enter New Zealand ports. One young man with tongue-in-cheek asked, “are truth and politics compatible?” Mr Gair replied that the process of debate got to the heart of most problems.

“Truth and politics will from time to time touch enough for honesty to be met,” he said.