OPPOSITION ARE PARTY HACKS AND TWISTERS.

Grey River Argus, 5 November 1949, Page 4

OPPOSITION ARE PARTY HACKS AND TWISTERS.

Minister Instances Two Somersaults FALSE NATIONALIST PROPAGANDA P.A. GREYTOWN, Nov. 4 "I am not a Communist and I refuse to be linked, |by cheap political vote- catching propaganda ,with that class of people,” said the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. E. L. Cullen, to-night, in Greytown. The propaganda which linked the Labour Party with the Communist Party was utter rot and bosh, Mr Cullen said. It was only cheap political vote-catching, which was also untruthful. It was howeve,r a type of propaganda which did not get under his skin, because it was untruthful. The Minister referred to the Bank of New Zealand bill. Mr Cullen said that the people of the Dominion should be able to look reasonably to the Opposition for vision, whereas Mr S. G. Holland, in commenting on the bill, had said that it was a poor bill, and one which would injure the people and the country. The Opposition was opposed to it because, they said, the people and the farmers would lose their all. Surely, Mr Cullen said, the people could have expected greater vision from the Opposition than that? Indeed, in Christchurch recently, Mr Holland had actually said that the control of the bank was “as you were.” Mr Holland had then been wooing the electors! In actual practice, the Bank of New Zealand was now operating on the same system as that in the past. To-day the bank had more clients than it ever had in its history. The bank would be used in future to help the farmers and the working people should times be hard. The Minister criticised the action of the Opposition towards the Parliamentary Superannuation Bill. Mr Cullen said that he had voted for the bill, and could anyone blame him? In the lobby of the House, members of the Opposition, whom he could name ,had, earlier, agreed with the clauses of the bill. Mp Cullen said he was present at a committee sitting, when the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, had said that the superannuation of £4OO per annum was too small—it should be £5OO. There was a code of honour in Parliament as to what was agreed on in its lobbies, Mr Cullen said. Members of the Opposition were his personal friends, although he opposed them politically. Mr Holland, had, too earlier, agreed to the superannuation proposals; but at that weekend, the executive of the National Party gave its orders, and Mr Holland was instructed by them to oppose clauses of the bill. Members of the National Party who had said that they would vote for the bill (and he could name those members) had voted against it, on instruction. Or the night that the clauses of the bill had been passed the Opposition had never looked so happy. Mr Cullen said that he had been amazed to hear his opponent in this election say that he would vete as he wished, and not be a party hack!