Lange’s tactics scorned

Press, 17 December 1988, Page 2

Lange’s tactics scorned

By

OLIVER RIDDELL,

in Parliament

The sacked Cabinet Minister, Mr Richard Prebble, was scornful of the tactics used by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, to ensure there was no debate on his leadership motion at yesterday’s caucus meeting.

"It was a smart-Alec debating trick,” Mr Prebble said. He agreed that Mr Lange’s account of what had happened at the 10minute caucus was “technically correct” but warned people against being fooled by it. Mr Prebble said the caucus had been expecting a three or four-hour debate on the circumstances in which Mr Lange was seeking to bring forward the vote on his leadership — including the sacking of Mr Douglas as Minister of Finance. These issues had not been discussed at any meeting before and some members of Parliament had flown to Wellington specially for the meeting. “The caucus meeting was held and over so quickly that some didn’t even get to the caucus room before it was over,” he said. “I’ve always been in favour of confronting the issues and I don’t think that verbal tricks work. “He (the Prime Minister) didn’t explain why he did it — he just did it and walked out,” Mr Prebble said. The caucus was a team and every member of the

team was entitled to have their say, but so far they had not. Perhaps Mr Lange had known that Mr Douglas planned to brief the caucus, canvassing the issues, said Mr Prebble. Mr Lange had asked for a confidence vote and as the leader he was entitled to do that any time, he said. It was now probably inevitable that before that vote was taken next Wednesday, Government members of Parliament would be briefed privately on the issues. The role of the thirdranked Cabinet Minister, Mr Mike Moore, in the Lange-Douglas row was the subject of intense speculation in Parliament yesterday. But Mr Moore, who is Minister of External Relations and Overseas Trade, was in Christchurch talking to staff at an icecream factory and was not available for the searching examination so many wished to put him through. Mr Lange said he had neither sought nor received any assurances from Mr Moore about his loyalty.

“I have no doubts about Mike Moore,” Mr Lange said.