Prebble hits out at hotel union

Press, 26 April 1988, Page 1

Prebble hits out at hotel union

Special correspondent ! Auckland Tiie Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, Mr Prebble, has spoken out strongly in favour of moves to keep the Labour Party ‘‘democratic” by stripping unions of their special status.

His views! emerged session behind close theT party’s] {Aucklan conference |at Waitan

{ Mr Prebble made • ( attack on ] the part affiliate, the! Hotel a: Workers’ Union, and loudly for changes to constitution! ]that at tie j ] temporarily voice.! |j I The. session was he mittee, with reporters, delegates would, not bt during the crucial det possible constitutional But -Mr .; Prebble’s] speech was! {clearly au< . side the building On trie Marae. || | While supporting a changes proposed byjtl branch of his Auckland electorate, Mr Prebble ti the union. >i | In an address some d later termed “overkill” t ister told the 130 delegt Hotel i and j Hospital ! U - r Union! had not helped “t Muldoon.”- 7! ■ . i | They had {waited until . was in Government to e: their party muscle in a pt. manner, Mr] Prebble assei . The ; union is heavily in in Mr Prebble’s electorate, has been in [turmoil for we Left ahd Right-wing groups for control of the party mac ] But] the Fijian branch i which would change the ba union! members’ links witl party! and seek to prevent “stacking” of selection and torate meetings, apparently ] the support] of some other j groups. ] j [A prominent supporter o Prebble is [a Watersiders’ t leader, Mr Gene Leckey, anc Carpenters’ Union is said to il the Auckland Central estab ■ ment. ; »■ I - ' !Mr! Prebble told; the pt conference] his electorate org ' isatipn i had] raised more mb: for the party than! the un i I I ' I i ■ : !

w2r.iv FERKINSON

Mrs Joyce Filoalii relieved her thirst during two days and three nights on ■ Banks Peninsula by licking dew from grass and sucking a pebble — a trick learned from an old war movie.

by licking the morning dew from the grass. i She also recalled a war film's advice to suck pebbles. During the nights, hidden in the dense bush, they were able to light fires for warmth. Twice Mr and Mrs Filoialii were close to being discovered, she said. One day she woke to herir voices and thought she had been dreaming. ' ■‘But there were some children on a hill away from us.” she said. i ’ J ’ I i I‘They were pointing and s tying 'look at those people.”' Another time she was almpst able to leap out of the scrub t|nd wave to a searching helicopter, but she said Filoialii preven ed her from catching the ere v's attention. The incident I began at her Rqwses Road, Aranui, home late on, 1 Thursday evening when she said her hands were bound and

Mrs Filoialii said yesterday that on Sunday she suggested to her former husband, Felise Faale Filoialii, now charged with unlawfully carrying her off, that they i should walk out of the Banks Peninsula bush holding hands to allay police fears for her safety'. That was how a: police patrol saw the pair at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday.

~i She recounted how she had Coped with the cold nights, without food I or water, while the police scoured the. Peninsula for them using a helicopter, foot patrols arid dogs. || I”.. Berries I and seeds gave her strength and she fought off thirst

she was driven to Banks Peninsula.

Between! Purau and Port Levy the car crashed. Filoialii suffered a badly cut arm in the accident, | accounting for the blood the (police later found splattered I inside the vehicle. “I thought of ways I could escape: I: left my shoes on the ground after we walked from the car, hoping someone would find them," said Mrs Filoialii. By Suncay she could see that Filoialii was tired, upset, weak and fed up [with the ordeal. “He was tike a child by then. He did not (want the police to shoot him. Sb I said we should walk out J- I said we should hold hands so thriylwould think it was 0.k.," she said. He had already asked three or four times fori Mrs Filoialii to kill him. . "I knev{ I couldn't do that.” "I alwayj knew I would be

able to outlast him,” she said yesterday, as she recuperated at her mother’s Burwood home. As the two walked hand-in-hand from the rough hill country into the sight of an approaching police patrol, Mrs Filoialii, i aged 36, collapsed at the feet of her estranged husband. Detective Seniior-Sergeant Rodgers, the officer in charge of the search, and two others, were driving towards the |search area when they spotted the pair. Detective ’Seriior-Sergeant Rodgers said the two were|cold. upset, tired and hungry.

They were both fed and Mrs Filoialii was examined py a Governor's Bay doctor before being reunited with her children.

Filoialii appeared; in the District Court yesterday. He] was remanded in custody without plea to May 2. Judge Fqgarty granted him legal aid and called for a psychiatric report.