Party faces conflicting agendas

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 1

Party faces conflicting agendas

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The National Party will begin its annual conference in Wellington today with several conflicting agendas on what should happen there and what it wants to achieve.

National’s leader, Mr Jim Bolger, wants a conference that discusses issues and policies, and goes over the reasons for the defeat in August’s General Election.

National’s president, Mr Neville Young, wants National to look ahead in its deliberations and offer the public a vision of what the future might hold. National’s new finance spokesman, Miss Ruth Richardson, wants the party to debate the issues and formulate a philosophical framework on which to build policies. Those different hopes were reflected in the uncertainties expressed last evening by delegates as they assembled in Wellington. All delegates faced the reality that National had taken a worse beating in terms of seats than in the 1984 landslide. On the other hand, National had had its best result for several decades in securing 44 per cent of the vote. Delegates wondered whether

they should be bemoaning the result and seeking scapegoats or congratulating themselves on doing so well, or both. Two guest speakers will be heard — the general manager of the National Australia Bank, Mr Brian Hamley, a prominent Australian business strategist, who will speak on the future for Australasian economic and social development; and Mr Alan Mcßobie, a Christchurch political scientist, on proportional representation and the first-past-the-post electoral system. Addresses will also be given by Mr Bolger and the deputy leader, Mr Don McKinnon.

Two points of view have emerged within National about what its policy direction should be. One wants middle-of-the-road pragmatism, the other wants more-market radicalism. The first is in no hurry to set a framework because the next election is not until 1990; the other thinks time wasted now can never be reclaimed. What kind of conference it is will depend oh which, if either, group gets the bit between its teeth.

But the mood in National is to look at its failings, even if the mandate is not there yet for severe corrective surgery.