Advance NZ shares Lange’s regret at adverse impact of right wing reforms

The revelations stemming from David Lange’s bio and his last few interviews reinforce the failure of the 1984 Labour Government and its National successor of the 1990’s to address the infrastructural issues that still afflict our nation today.

It is a tragedy that such a gifted person could not lift the sights of his team to focus on a better society for all New Zealanders rather than on policies that led directly to a socially divided, low income, skill deficient society and his untimely exit from the role of Prime Minister.

One only needs to look at the speech he gave in kicking off his 1984 Economic Summit to see the possibilities he raised for lifting this country to new levels of achievement and progress and then look to the result of the lack of implementing the proposals he canvassed to realise why we are where we are at today. The current election campaign is being fought on the same issues raised in 1984 and neither Labour nor National are proposing anything new or different to the tried and failed proposals of the past 20 years.

The essential infrastructure of our country e.g. Health, education, transport, energy, defence, justice etc is, despite ever increasing amounts of tax dollars being invested, less capable and more costly than it was in 1984.

It is indeed sad that David Lange has passed away without seeing his vision of an inclusive and just society fulfilled and it would be a fitting tribute to his memory if the various political protagonists of today saw fit to focus on the message he delivered to the nation in 1984 and addressed the real drivers of the problems we face rather than simply play politics with the effects.

END

© Scoop Media