Fracas in wake of row

Press, 1 May 1989, Page 1

Fracas in wake of row

A torrent of Left-wing invective towards the former Minister of Finance, Mr Roger Douglas, appears to have inadvertently triggered a fracas involving an Australian television crew. The Channel Nine crew, and its reporter, Graeme Davis, alleged that it was assaulted by a trade union delegate. That claim, seized on avidly by Backbone Club supporters, was rejected by other union delegates, who said that a pushing match developed after the delegate and the film crew collided at the back door of the hall.

But what appears to have caused the crush at the door was a long train of abuse to Mr Douglas from a unionist, Mr Mike

Sweeney. Mr Sweeney, who blamed Mr Douglas for the Backbone Club’s tactics at the conference, comes from Mr Douglas’s own electorate.

Just outside the conference he bailed up Mr Douglas. “You haven’t got the guts to stand up and speak,” said Mr Sweeney in his tirade. “You’re pathetic,” replied Mr Douglas, who had been trying to ignore him. Both the fracas with the television crew and the shouting caused a mini-stampede of delegates and journalists from the hall.

Ironically, given the Backbone Club’s strong endorsement of Mr

Douglas, the former Minister spoke just once during the conference debates — and that appeared to be an attempt to cool tempers. After a ten-minute recess, called to prevent a total boil-over of delegates, Mr Douglas suggested a compromise solution to a bitter and complicated procedural fight. That, and his proposal to refer all remaining remits to the party’s national council, brought the conference to an end. The one remit that remained undebated was a Backbone Club piece de resistance — that Messrs Douglas, Richard Prebble and Trevor de Cleene should be reinstated.