Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 21. August 28 1978

The Future for Frank

The Future for Frank

Anyone who has met Frank Gill might be excused for considering his days are numbered. The rumours which circulated at the time of his hospitalisation for "exhaustion" during the last Christmas vacation certainly give no cause for comfort to those who support him in high office. But Gill is not retiring. In a recent television interview he remarked that people in his electorate would be voting for the party not the man. The irony, it seemed, escaped him.

Gill is a good man for Muldoon to have around. He may be embarrassingly open about his reactionary views every now and then, but because it is so difficult to get past him or get him to reverse a decision once he has made it, he acts as a very efficient shield for any deeper purpose which might be accrued to a government action.

The Movick issue, for example, was quite plainly prompted by James Movick's efficiency as a leader of overseas students. The reasons for getting rid of him were primarily political. The confusion over permits was merely the convenient way to go about it. Gill was instrumental in creating that confusion and in fact managed to develop a classic Catch 22 out of the whole affair. Because James was a student he ruled the case would have to be heard by the Education Advisory Committee (EAC). Yet the EAC had no authority to make decisions, and no jurisdiction over people who did not hold or apply for a student permit. James was applying for a special work permit.

The National Party propaganda glossy "Years of Lightning" euphemistically credits Gill with administrative expertise and great strength of conviction. So assuming National gets back in what is Muldoon going to use these qualities for next year? The latest rumour: dear old Frank will become Minister of Education. (Gandar is tipped to succeed Gordon in the Labour hot seat, if he wins against Beetham).

Gill has had a lengthy interest in educational matters: he strongly supports the back to basics campaign and is especially concerned about the lack of religious values in the schools' curricular. In other ways too it is a logical step. Gill has already demonstrated a predilection for picking on those who cannot easily defend themselves (like Pacific Island immigrants). What more appropriate than children, who cannot defend themselves at all?

Simon Wilson