Nats will be ‘builders’

Press, 12 August 1989, Page 3

Nats will be ‘builders’

; Labour has been a Government of wreckers but National will be a Government of builders, says the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger.

He told National’s annual conferencee in Dunedin that New Zealand was a rich country suffering from poor Government. For five years, people had been told to grin and bear the pain because eventually, some time, somehow, the capsized economy would right itself. It had not happened and the country had had

to borrow billions to stay afloat. Mr Bolger gave a commitment that his immediate priority on becoming Prime Minister would be to draw on “all the political skills and experience I possess to steer through the changes needed.” Deregulating the labour market, law and order measures to deal with gangs, fixing unemployment and reshaping education, would be among the earliest reforms of his Government But National was not prepared to pay any price

to achieve growth and development, he said. A respect for the environment was needed. National stood for private enterprise, individual freedom and personal responsibility. It stood against the abuse of power in all its forms — whether by bosses in industry, bosses in unions, criminals in the streets, or politicians in the Beehive. I Labour shrank;from the 19905, Mr Bolger said. It . had lost touch with its past and had no plans for the future.