N.Z.’s stance on apartheid

Press, 15 July 1976, Page 5

N.Z.’s stance on apartheid

PA Wellington The Government’s stance of "total opposition to apartheid in sport and in every other social activity” was reiterated yesterday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr Taiboys). The Minister said he was reacting to reports that Mr Abraham Ordia, the president of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, had accused the Government of supporting apartheid in sport, even if it did not support apartheid generally. “Mr Ordia’s accusation is entirely without foundation,” said Mr Taiboys. “As he must know, racial discrimination in the selection of sports teams is foreign to the New Zealand way of life and is explicitly forbidden by New Zealand law, and all sport in New Zealand is played on a non-racial basis. “Mr Ordia has apparently acknowledged, at least implicitly, that we are opposed to apartheid in general. It is high time he did so. The Government has gone to great lengths to make its opposition clear to all the world, by actions as well as by words. No reasonable person can doubt where we stand.

“Fear evidently persists, particularly in Africa, that the All Blacks’ tour of South Africa will be exploited for political purposes, and that New Zealand is in effect condoning things like the events at Soweto,” Mr Taiboys said. "I want to make it quite clear, therefore, that the Government categorically rejects any assumption —in South Africa, in Montreal, or anywhere else in the world —that because an All Black rugby team is touring South Africa, New Zealand approves of the situation there.

“The Government’s policy is, and always has been, simply one of noninterference in sport. We believe firmly that sport should be left to sportsmen. And we find it hard to believe that the members of the International Olympic Committee do not share this view.” Later, answering questions in the House from the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling), Mr Taiboys repeated that the Government’s policy was that it did not interfere in sport, and there was nothing to suggest this stance had damaged New Zealand’s standing in SouthEast Asia.