Douglas steps up attack on Lange

Press, 7 April 1989, Page 3

Douglas steps up attack on Lange

By

PATTRICK SMELLIE

in Wellington The campaign to unseat the Prime Minister, Mr Lange by his former Minister of Finance, Mr Roger Douglas, was being stepped up, Mr Douglas said last night. But no leadership challenge appears imminent. Met by journalists at Wellington Airport as he arrived from Sydney, Mr Douglas said Mr Lange’s poor poll ratings and lack of leadership could not go on.

He rejected suggestions yesterday by Mr Lange that the Government’s dive in public opinion polls was Mr Douglas’s fault.

“The poll was taken

before I went to Australia,” said Mr Douglas, who made provocative speeches in Sydney and Melbourne. Before that, he had deliberately kept “remarkably quiet.” "It’s simply absurb, that sort of comment,” he said. Mr Douglas said the uncertainty created by the Government’s apparent loss of direction could not go on. “The fact is that the Prime Minister called for a breather, a cup of tea,” Mr Douglas said.

"That was a sheer nonsense. It wasn’t a policy. It was cosmetic at best, and it’s turned out to be a boomerang, and people don’t like it.

“What people want is a

sense of leadership, which they’re not getting.” But Mr Douglas continued to leave open whether he would directly challenge Mr Lange for the leadership again. He ruled out suggestions of a leadership bid witjhin the next six weeks, saying he had made no such suggestion and had had no contact with colleagues while in Australia. “I’m stepping up my profile,” he said. “I kept a deliberately low profile in January and February. “I’m not running, in the

narrow sense of the word, a leadership challenge, I’m saying what I believe is best for New Zealand. “That’s what I’ve always done. I’ll let the chips fall.”