Local bodies to campaign against Labour

Press, 10 April 1987, Page 9

Local bodies to campaign against Labour

By

KAY FORRESTER

At least three Christchurch Labour politicians will lose their seats at September’s General Election if 45 authorities opposing forced amalgamations achieve their aim.

The Communities Against Forced Amalgamation New Zealand (C.A.F.A.N.Z.), group of local bodies will target Labour politicians in areas where amalgamations are pending in order to keep the issue a political one.

The group wants to put the Labour Government out and will campaign with the slogan, “A vote for Labour is a vote for forced amalgamation.” The group is not slowing its campaign after the Local Government Commission announced on Wednesday that amalgamations were on hold until after the election.

A spokesman for the public relations firm handling the group’s campaign, Mr Roy Hughes, said he believed that the commission’s announcement might, in fact, put more pressure on Labour

members of Parliament All authorities in areas where mergers were proposed knew that a sure way to halt the postponed amalgamations permanently was to vote the Labour Government out.

The Mayor of Riccarton, Mr Richard Harrington, and the chairman of Waimairi County, Mrs Margaret Murray, are on the executive of C.A.F.A.N.Z. Mr Harrington is chairman. They were elected with six others at a meeting yesterday at the Municipal Association conference in Palmerston North.

Mr Brian Elwood, the Local Government Commission’s chairman, announced at the conference the decision to halt until after the election the mergers that had not yet reached survey stage. That included plans to merge Christchurch City, Riccarton Borough, Heathcote County, and Waimairi District.

About 90 representatives of 39 authorities attended the C.A.F.A.N.Z. meeting and. including apologies, the number of supporting authorities was 45.

Mr Harrington pledged yesterday to keep amalgamation an election issue. “A vote for Labour is a vote for forced amalgamation,” he said. Mr Hughes said the authorities’ campaign had yet to be completely drafted but Labour politicians would be targeted. In Christchurch that meant that the members for Lyttelton (Mrs Hercus), Yaldhurst (Mrs Margaret Austin), and Christchurch North (Mr Mike Moore) could lose their seats. Another Labour seat under threat was Tasman, held by Mr Ken Shirley. The campaign would aim at keeping local government amalgamations alive as an issue in the minds of the voters, Mr Hughes said. When Mr Elwood made his announcement on Wednesday, he gave as a reason for delaying mergers the wish not to confuse local and central Government matters. “It would be ridiculous to confuse national electoral issues with local electoral issues,” Mr Elwood said.