Democrats urged to fill Opposition seats

Press, 29 June 1987, Page 3

Democrats urged to fill Opposition seats

PA Lower Hutt In a burst of optimism yesterday the leader of the Democratic Party asked New Zealand to make his party the Opposition in the next Parliament. He did this in spite of recent polls showing support for the Democrats at only 4 per cent.

Labour looked set to sweep into power with an increased majority, while the National Party was on the verge of collapse, Mr Neil Morrison told the Democrats’ annual conference.

It was a last-minute addition to his prepared address. "National now looks weak and inept, and the polls are showing it,” Mr Morrison said, referring to the latest Heylen“Eyewitness” poll. It showed support for the National Party down 4 per cent to 35 per cent, while Labour improved 4 per cent to 61 per cent. Support for the Democrats rose 1 per cent to 4 per cent, just above the poll’s margin for error. However, the party has based its election campaign round attracting a protest vote against Rogernomics and the effects of Labour’s financial adjustments.

“A Labour Government re-elected with a bigger majority and all the arrogance of knowing there is no opposition from the main Opposition party is going to crucify hundreds of thousands of people on the altar of the free market,” Mr Morrison said. “I am asking the nation to give this party the mandate to form the Op-

position this election,” he told cheering delegates.

At a conference with standing ovations, Mr Morrison received the longest and most rapturous for this speech. Delegates pounded the floor, cheered and clapped as their leader embraced the president, Mr Stefan Lipa, and a fellow member of Parliament, Mr Garry Knapp, and posed for television cameras.

The conference, which ended yesterday after five days, was a low-budget affair, reflecting the straitened circumstances the party found itself in after the 1984 election.

One frugal delegate helped offset expenses by offering his colleagues hair cuts and blow waves, and the green and gold nylon bunting decorating the Lower Hutt Town Hall was auctioned to help cut costs.

The Democratic Party’s Christian base was evident at the conference, from the opening prayer vowing to establish “the Christian economic order” to one delegate’s call for everyone to join a national day of prayer and fasting “to pray that the right men are elected.” At times the conference had the air of an evangelical meeting, with an antiphonal rhythm building up between the rostrum and the floor.

Cries of “yes,” “that’s true” and “shame” punctuated speeches by party luminaries painting a picture of a society in sad shape, and promising a

“utopia” under a Democratic Government. Known as the “funny money” party in its days as the Social Credit League, the Democratic Party has tried to lose its crimplene-suit-and -Skoda image, but: “We as Democrats still lay claim to our Social Credit beliefs that in New Zealand today thousands of people are short of money,” Mr Morrison said yesterday. The very complexity of their economic theories had often worked against the party, he said. “The tragedy of C. H. Douglas (founder of the Social Credit League) and his ... concepts was that his own disciples, some probably in this room today, did the man irreparable harm by mumbling a lot of boring detail, jargon and buzz-words and missed the over-all philosophy,” he said. That over-all philosophy, according to the Democratic manifesto, was “reforming the financial system to maintain a better balance between the supply of money on the one hand and production on the other.” Interest rates would come down to no more than 3 per cent, capital for investment in production would be cheaper, and exchange rates would be controlled. Tax reforms included replacing GST with a transfer tax, and taxdeductibility of rates and mortgage interest payments.

Increasing people’s disposable incomes would not only improve the standard of living, it

would also largely put an end to crime, according to Democratic theory. “Create a society in which there is no want... no lack of opportunity, and offer people a secure future, do this and crime will diminish rapidly,” said the party’s spokesman on police, Mr Stuart Perry. • Another main plank of the Democrats’ election campaign is the stand on electoral reform. It favours a system of proportional representation, which would in turn favour it and other minority groups.

Under the system, 60 members of Parliament would be voted in by an election, and a further 60 chosen from the parties, depending on the proportion of votes won. This would mean better representation for minority opinions, and would also end “the excessive and unfettered dominance” that the Cabinet enjoyed under the first-past-the-post system, Mr Knapp said. Mr Morrison told the 150 delegates, candidates and observers that the way ahead for the party was no easy one. “Our mission ... gives us the determination to win seats when all others have failed,” he said. “It is a mission to build a society of opportunity with justice and dignity.”

Or as the humorist, A. K. Grant, put it in his speech on the opening day: "You’ve got two seats already. All you need to do is pick up 48 more to be assured of a comfortable majority.”