Govt ‘most cynical, bereft’

Press, 11 April 1979, Page 10

Govt ‘most cynical, bereft’

PA Wellington The present Government is the most cynical and bereft Administration that has ever managed to return to the Treasury benches, according to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling). He told a public meeting in Tauranga that the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) was a desperate and cornered figure who had refused to accept his own responsibilities or pass them to someone else. National’s election

promises had lasted only as long as it had taken it to scramble back into power. It was now left “without a clue” as to what it would do tomorrow, let alone over the next three years, Mr Rowling said. “Ail they know is that the election bills are coming in and they have to scramble in and get the money from somewhere,” said Mr Rowling. “So it is 60 per cent more on the price of power at a time when the price of oil is soaring. “It is extra for milk while there are children

all over the country who are not properly fed. “It is taking the lid off price control because that might make some of their friends a little happier. “It is push up the price of money again because the Government itself has to go out on the open market for cash. “It is talk about a conference on the unemployed: a talk shop while thousands of kids rot on the dole. “It is a Prime Minister who welcomes the migration outflow because it eases the pressure on housing.”

Mr Rowling urged New Zealanders to join forces to force the Government to take action to stop the country’s slide or to push it aside. The greatest problem facing New Zealand was a vacuum of real leadership in the National Party, Mr Rowling said. The party’s performance over the last three years had been an example of political decay. “The Prime Minister has totally refused to bring Parliament together at a time when it ought to be discussing and working together on the problems facing the country,” said Mr Rowling. “No longer can the Prime Minister be excused for refusing to front up to the press and allowing them to report on at least some of the misdemeanours of the Government.”

Mr Rowling said that New Zealand could not take three more years of the drift and destruction that had gone on since the General Election. “We do not have three more years to waste. We do not have three more years while the productive base of the country withers and while young people with the skills we need leave the country,” he said.