THE PRESS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1977. The cost of foreign affairs

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 18

THE PRESS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1977. The cost of foreign affairs

The Acting Prime Minister, Mr Taiboys, told Parliament on Friday that the estimated cost of the Prime Minister’s visit to the United States is $70,000. He was answering a question from Mr R. W. Prebble, the Labour member for Auckland Central. Mr Prebble observed that, as Mr Muldoon was making his visit largely to have lunch with the President of the United States, the $70,000 lunch would go down as the most expensive lunch in New Zealand’s history.

Mr Prebble’s amusing interpretation of the cost of the Prime Minister's expedition should not be taken seriously. That the cost of executing foreign policy is made known is quite proper; but Mr Prebble’s remark invites a revival of a very damaging attitude towards foreign affairs.

New Zealanders do not expect Government leaders to be profligate in their expenditure; they expect, however, that the Government will be effective in its overseas relationships. A decade or so ago much was made of the cost of any overseas expedition by a Minister. Fortunately Parliamentarians and others grew out of a rather silly atti-

tude towards overseas missions. The change of view was probably fostered by the increasing awareness that New Zealand’s future depended upon many of the efforts of our officials and Ministers in other countries. The negotiations on Britain’s entry to the European Common Market, and all that has flowed from that, made the need for top-level efforts plain enough.

More than $BO million is being spent on New Zealand’s foreign relations this year, and much of this sum is directed at securing or maintaining trade. If a Prime Minister and a party of officials achieve what they set out to do on behalf of the country by visiting the United States, spending three weeks there and visiting many places and many people, who may be persuaded to notice and respect New Zealand’s interests, the cost of $70,000 is modest enough. Many businesses, with much less at stake than a large part of New Zealand’s foreign trade and its relations with a whole range of other countries, would think that such a sum is very modest. It is to be hoped that a petty attitude to important parts—sometimes vital parts—of foreign relations does not return to New Zealand politics.