Labour loses its fifth councillor to Anderton

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 6

Labour loses its fifth councillor to Anderton

By

GLEN PERKINSON

A fifth member of the Labour Party’s national council resigned from the party last evening, declaring her support for Mr Jim Anderton.

Ms Kathleen Mary, one of two women’s representatives on the council, said she felt “tainted” by her association with the party. Ms Mary was followed by Ms Mavis Watson, who formerly chaired the Sydenham electorate committee and is a member of the party’s women’s council. The resignations came at a Sydenham electorate committee meeting attended by Mr Anderton as an invited guest. On hearing of the two resignations he said it illustrated that the “level of disillusion inside the party matches the disillusion outside it.” He said the party was being gutted of its "effective middle management” and would suffer for it. The party president, Ms Ruth Dyson, although unaware of the two latest resignations, was not surprised and said she expected two more members of the New Zealand council to leave within a

fortnight. "I’m not pleased with them for resigning — they’ve made valuable contributions, but they will be replaced by competent and active people,” she said last evening. The councillors’ resignations were expected to be followed by two-thirds of the electorate committee of the Manawatu member of Parliament, Mr Dave Robinson. Ms Dyson accused Mr Anderton aand his followers of waging a campaign against the Government. “They are establishing a new political party and they know they have to hurt the Opposition, but this orchestrated campaign will not hurt the party and it won’t undermine the Government,” she said. < “Nevertheless, the campaign’s not over yet — there will be more resignations over the next fortnight.” In resigning, Ms Mary said the

Labour Party no longer worked for women. “I feel ashamed of the effects of this Government’s policies on the lives of women. The dogma of the deficit has increased the inequalities which have always existed.” She predicted that a new political party would hold dear equality values. Ms Mary, a Christchurch union worker, spent three years on the women’s council before being elected to the New Zealand council in January this year. She said another high-ranking woman council member may be considering her future with the party. The alternative party, widely tipped to be called New Labour, would attract women’s votes in droves, she said. “Women will decide the outcome of the next election — we are the ones directly involved with children, families’ education, housing and health. “When Roger Douglas talked of

‘pain’ he was talking to low-paid workers and most of those are women. Women and men will flock to this new party and want to be part of it,” she said. Last evening Mr Anderton threw off criticism that his new party would be a “traditional, Labour relic” with policies unappealing in today’s world. He said while it would be a “caring party that will enhance people’s lives and build a constructive New Zealand,” it would follow forward-thinking policy lines. “It won’t say one thing and then do the other. I think it’s the Government that’s backward and a relic. “It’s the one treating people as unimportant and giving them no hope — treating them as peasants and giving some elite the good life while the poor are supposed to serve them. It’s running a 300-year-old society by some jungle law where the strong survive and the weak go to the wall.”