National would support return of Lyttelton ferry

Press, 11 June 1987, Page 4

National would support return of Lyttelton ferry

A National Government would support the reestablishment of the Lyt-telton-Wellington terry service, said the Opposition spokesman on transport, Mr Winston Peters, in Christchurch yesterday. After visiting the Yaldhurst electorate, Mr Peters predicted that under Labour Government policies, the drift from the South Island to the North Island would be accelerated.

"In the long term, you will simply become a tourist centre,” he said. Industry would be retained in the Canterbury region only through assistance to the area’s manufacturing infrastructure.

“Central to our transport and trade policy is the revival of the interisland ferry service — not one which is conceptually the same as the former link but one which provide will comfort, frequency and speed; one which will re-connect Christchurch with Wellington.

“We would give this

move every encouragement, combined with a review of the Cook Strait ferry service to ensure that it has the same legal and financial barriers that go with any main highway.

“As far as I am concerned this will be central to maintaining industry in the South Island.”

Mr Peters disputed criticisms that the party’s policy should have been announced earlier.

“The simple fact is that the intellectual and business environment was not conducive to announcing new policy before. We should have held back until the news media were more amenable to hearing what our policy was and the constraints of the Broadcasting Act required that the National Party should be given a fair go.”

Mr Peters — the man who led the Opposition attack in the Maori Loans affair — still believes that the National Party could have launched harder attacks on Government performance during the last

three years. “Some of the party got the role of Opposition wrong. I don’t criticise them for often being nice and reasonable when they should have climbed in when they saw a situation occurring.”

Mr Peters said the National Government’s defeat at the 1984 General Election was a significant contributing factor to the Opposition’s attitude.

"But that is no excuse. We are in the business of politics — a business of accountability, communication and leadership. We have to provide these factors because they are what the public want They want a certainty of purpose. The malaise of defeat cannot be an excuse. You have to pick yourself up,” Mr Peters said.

“At that time, we owed the public much better. It is a privilege to be in Opposition, and you have a duty to perform like an Opposition. I think that we will fulfil that duty during the next few weeks.”