Labour’s economic policy coming ‘home to roost’

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 16

Labour’s economic policy coming ‘home to roost’

Political reporter Having implemented a defective economic policy the Labour Government is watching economic problems come home to roost, according to the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger. He told the Cambridge Rotary Club that the last few weeks had brought a deluge of bad news for New Zealand. Economic signals about output, profitability and

investment pointed to the present recession lasting longer and biting deeper than had hitherto been forecast. The sharemarket crash on October 20 had extinguished overnight the one remaining bright light on New Zealand’s economic horizon, Mr Bolger said. It has also marked the sinking of the market that had become the flagship of Labour’s market economic policies. The mood

had changed dramatically from euphoria to profound pessimism. Support for the Government’s economic policies was rapidly being replaced by accusations and calls for change, he said. The sharemarket crash had changed economic purists into pragmatists. The pressure on the Government to change course in the face of widespread economic devastation was mounting

— not only from outside the Labour Party, but now from within its own ranks as well. Labour’s recent annual conference should have been a victory celebration in the aftermath of the election, but it had been more akin to a wake. Mr Bolger said that rather than endorsing the Government’s economic policies the conference had overwhelmingly rejected them.