Minister would take S.A.-paid trip

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 5

Minister would take S.A.-paid trip

PA • Wellington The Minister of Maori Affairs (.Mr Couch) still intends visiting South Africa, and he will go as a guest of the South African Govern- ; tnent if he is invited.

He has ruled out the possibility of a private visit this year.

Mr Couch was asked to reply to a challenge from a Labour member of Parliament. Dr M. R. Bassett, who called on the Minister and other National Party members to say who funded previous visits to South Africa and who would pay for future visits.

Dr Bassett issued the challenge in relation to the South African "slush fund” scandal, implying that some of the fund may have been

[used to influence New Zealanders. Replying to Dr Bassett, Mr Couch said: “I would like to tell him that if he is i investigating the so-called i slush fund, he is in his right I environment. | “For his information, I went there myself under my own steam in 1970. I was a ; guest of the Government there in 1974, and I have still got a mortgage on my home.” Mr Couch said pressure of work would prevent his making a private visit to South Africa and some black African countries this year. But he repeated that he still wanted to go and would review the possibilities of a visit later. He said he was keen to see what progress South Africa had made towards

■ breaking down apartheid since he was last there. , “I think there is quite a I bit of development since then,” he said. “If the South African Government were to invite me jto their country as their guest again, I would go, as much as I would go to any other country where the Government invited me.” Asked who would pay his travel expenses, Mr Couch said: “That’s between Mum and I, and how much I can get out of her. She holds the purse-strings.” His wife would travel with him, “so she had better come across with enough money,” Mr Couch said. He said he would not accept invitations on a private visit to speak at functions as a Minister of the New Zealand Government.