Union Hack Embarrassed

Kirk's second intervention came when the conference was debating a recommendation from one of the Constitutional Committee's relating to selection procedures for parliamentary candidates. While the committee's chairman Brian Landers, a trade unionist and long standing party hack, tried to hide under the table to conceal his embarrassment. Kirk simply substituted his own recommendation.

The third intervention was prompted by irresponsible people like Michael Hirschfield of the Ice Cream Workers' Union, who suggested that there was some incompatibility between democracy and the Security Service. Norm reassured the conference that the matter was well in hand, and cleverly diverted the debate by making a long speech about the right of privacy. He concluded with a couple of jokes at the expense of Brigadier Gilbert, and referred to the allegations that a certain Mr Carr had been assigned by the Security Service to tail the North Vietnamese delegation that visited New Zealand in February. Kirk said he had approached the S.S. on this question and they had assured him that Carr was working for a "weekly newspaper".

In stating this Kirk misled, the conference. Kirk had been informed by the Wellington Journalists Union that none of its members had been involved in tailing the delegation. Furthermore Truth had published a statement that none of its employees had interfered with the delegation In view of these denials it would be interesting to know why Kirk has persisted in blaming Carr's activities on "a weekly newspaper", and how did the S.S. know Carr was "tailing the delegation for a weekly newspaper?"