First Labour conference to test mood

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 8

First Labour conference to test mood

By

BRENDON BURNS

in Wellington

The Labour Party’s first regional conference of election year will open tomorrow in Dunedin, faced with a number of remits critical of Government economic policy, including a call for a vote of no-confidence.

About 50 delegates from the Otago-Southland region will attend. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, will open the conference and the party president, Ms Margaret Wilson, will also address it

Several of the critical remits, including the noconfidence motion, come from the Hotel and Hospital Workers’ Union.

Among its calls are one for an urgent reduction in inflation and interest rates, and another for the implementation of full employment as soon as possible. It is expected that the no-confidence remit will be firmly rejected by the conference, but concern about inflation and unemployment may see these motions passed. The recent controversy over American aircraft using the Christchurch Airport base is reflected in a call for airports to be declared nuclear-free in the same way as ports. The Otago-Southland Labour region does not include any marginal Labour-held seats, nor has it much prospect of gaining any seat The Waitaki seat, held with a slim majority for the Government by Mr Jim Sutton, is included in the northern South Island region. The conference for this region will be held in Blenheim in midMay. . It is likely that both'Mr

Lange and Ms Wilson in their speeches and in private this week-end in Dunedin will urge that election-year party uhity be maintained. ’

They will also point to' emerging economic indicators as signalling that the economy is oh the upturn. But while the anger of many regional conference delegates may be muted because of the impending election, expressions of dissatisfaction with the Government’s direction will still emerge.