Labour M.P.s seek ban to halt critics

Press, 13 November 1987, Page 6

Labour M.P.s seek ban to halt critics

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Some members of the Labour Government are urging the introduction of legislation that would protect them from their trade union and Left-wing critics.

This has not been considered by either the Cabinet or Labour’s Parliamentary caucus yet. It is just under informal discussion.

Such legislation would be aimed at preventing bloc-voting in the selection of candidates — for any party, not just Labour — seeking election to Parliament. It would not be aimed exclusively at trade union bloc votes and trade unions would not be named. The legislation would simply state that party membership had to be on an individual basis with no affiliation of any group or organisation to any party, as is the case now with trade unions to Labour.

The spur for this has been the continuing criticism by the trade unions of Labour’s handling of the economy, regional development and employment. This continued unabated at Labour’s recent annual conference at Auuckland, even though Labour had just won a sweeping and historic second election victory. The president of the Council of Trade Unions, Mr Ken Douglas, a member of the Moscow-aligned

Socialist Unity Party, told delegates at the conference that he planned to work with the Labour Government and saw no palatable alternative to doing so. Trade union leaders at the conference, such as Mr Pat Kelly, were not influenced by this. Their continued intrasigence is being considered by the Government as just another example of trade union disloyalty to it.

But if events at the conference were the spur, some Government members have a more impelling fear. They remember how union bloc-voting had Ms Sonja Davies elected for Pencarrow to succeed the long-serving and comfortable Mr Fraser Colman, in the teeth of strong opposition from some party stalwarts there. They fear that this muscle will be used to tip out leading figures in the Government with whom the trade union radicals are at odds. The most vulnerable three are the Minister for State-owned Enterprises, Mr Prebble, in Auckland Central; the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Moyle, in Otara; and the Associate

Minister for State-owned Enterprises, Mr Neilson, in Miramar. Also vulnerable are the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, in Manurewa; the Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, in Roskill; the Minister of Energy and Regional Development, Mr Butcher, in Hastings; the Minister of Revenue, Mr de Cleene, in Palmerston North; and the Under-Secretary for Agriculture, Mr Maxwell, in Titirangi. Doing so well against trade union and radical Left-wing remits at the conference has not soothed them; nor are they soothed by the milder tone of Labour’s new president, Mr Rex Jones, since the conference.

The vulnerable ones and their friends are prepared to work with Mr Jones as they did with Ms Margaret Wilson before him, in the hope of reaching an accommodation. But they are also considering legislation as perhaps the only way in which they can really protect themselves and their mates from those within the Labour movement they have come to regard as their enemies.