Opposition to N.Z. Springbok tour rising in Australia

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 1

Opposition to N.Z. Springbok tour rising in Australia

NZPA

Sydney

Australian churches are being mobilised to bring pressure to bear on the New Zealand Government to stop the Springbok lour.

The Australian Uniting Church will call on its followers to write to or telephone the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra and consulates in other states, asking that the New Zealand Government change its stance on the tour and stop the Springboks from coming. The Rev. Dick Wootton, the Uniting Church’s secretary for justice and human rights, said yesterday that he expected a “good response” to the campaign from the Church, the third largest in Australia.

“We will also be approaching the Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace to see what they can do to assist and see if we can persuade the Anglican Church to help,” he said. “We believe the tour is not good for all of us in this part of the world. Australia is related to New Zealand, whether we like it or not.” Mr Wootton said he thought New Zealand was “stone mad” to have the Springbok visit. “It’s very silly, as your Government will be identified very closely with the apartheid regime,” he said.

“We will be asking our people to be aware of what the implications of the tour are and to ask them over the next few months, discreetly and properly to ring or write to New Zealand Government officials in Australia to see if the Government will block the tour.” Mr Wootton said the Uniting Church’s decision was in part a response to requests from New Zealand, but also it was in line with the Church’s policy of isolating South Africa until the country changed its system. “Let’s face it, there is unbelievable pressure in South Africa to get the tour going. This is not a football tour, it’s a political tour,” said Mr Woottop. I n other developments yesterday a senior Australian Government backbencher, Mr Roger Shipton,- asked a meeting of the Royal Commonwealth Society in Hobart to express its concern about the tour to members of its sister organisations in New Zealand and to pressure the New Zealand Government on the tour. He said the success of the forthcoming Com-

monwealth Heads of Government meeting in Melbourne, next year’s Brisb a n e Commonwealth Games “and even the success of the Commonwealth organisation itself” would depend on New Zealand’s attitude to the tour.

Queensland’s Opposition leader, Mr Ed Casey, last evening called for an urgent state Government protest to New Zealand against the tour. ■ “The New Zealand Government should be told in the bluntest possible terms that Queensland condemns any move which may risk the 1952 Commonwealth. Games in Brisbane,” he said.

Mr Casey said the state Government’s silence on the issue was evidence of the influence that the proSouth African League of Rights exerted within the National Party of Queensland.

In Wellington yesterday, Mr J. W. Rowe, executive director of the Employers’ Federation, said a “great responsibility” rested on those who wanted the Springbok tour to go ahead.

Mr Rowe was speaking at the Wellington Cathedral on the subject “What’s important to me.” “Those who want the tour to go ahead should weigh up the value of their freedom to have the tour against the damage it would do to other people’s principles, and the likely adverse external or internal consequences,” said Mr Rowe.

In Auckland, Mr T. O. Newnham, vice-president of the Citizens’ Campaign for Racial Equality, said that unless the New Zealand Government acted quickly, the tour would go beyond its control. Mr Newnham said he believed that Commonwealth Heads of Government would step in and stop the tour. He based this prediction on recent comments by the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) and a letter he had had from the Canadian Minister of Sport (Mr Regan).