Abuse of rules in selection denied

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 8

Abuse of rules in selection denied

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington No abuse of the rules occurred in the recent choice of five candidates with trade union backgrounds for safe seats, according to the Prime Minister, Mr Lange. But he says the Labour Party does plan to review the part of its constitution governing the selection of electorate candidates.

"All party rules have weaknesses and are open to challenge," Mr Lange said, and he advised critics of Labour’s rules to watch how National’s rules worked in the forthcoming selection of a candidate for the new Hobson seat in Northland. One of the candidates there is Mr Neil Austin, who is the sitting member of Parliament for the ad-

jacent Bay of Islands electorate, but who lost renomination there, to his own electorate chairman. “I have my own view about how the Labour Party rules should be changed, but it would be highly unproductive for me to talk about them publicly at this stage,” Mr Lange said. Last week-end’s Wellington regional conference of the Labour Party, while “in committee,” rejected remits promoting rule changes. In recent weeks three Wellington electorates have gained new candidates with trade union backgrounds — Pencarrow (Ms Sonja Davies), Island Bay (Ms Elizabeth Tennet) and Porirua (Mr Graham Kelly). All three electorates

had popular non-trade union candidates who were defeated — Pencarrow, (Mr Simon Walker, the former broadcaster who now runs a public relations firm), Island Bay (Ms Helene Ritchie, Wellington’s Deputy Mayor) and Porirua (Mr Ken Gray, the former All Black and now a local City Councillor; and the Rev. Don Borrie, a leading social reformer also active in local body politics).

Support for these defeated candidates and the causes they represented was not enough to get the conference to agree to rule changes. Mr Lange denied that people with a trade union background would have trouble fitting into Labour’s caucus.

"These people don’t form a clique, they don’t form a majority in caucus, and they are not opposed to Labour’s economic policies, so it is silly to talk about acting to redirect the Labour Party,” he said. Mr Lange also expressed surprise that a sitting Labour member of Parliament, Mr Reg Boorman (Wairarapa), should attack aspects of the Government’s economic policies at the regional conference.

“He might be better off trying to get re-elected than attacking his mates,” Mr Lange said. Labour Party polls did not suggest that the selling of nonvoting shares in the Bank of New Zealand was high on the list of election winning or losing issues.