Nuclear bill ‘should be made law’

Press, 23 August 1983, Page 6

Nuclear bill ‘should be made law’

A bill on the problems of nuclear vessels and weapons put forward by the leader of the Social Credit Party, Mr Beetham, should be made law, according to Mrs Marie Leadbetter, a spokesperson and executive member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Auckland.

It was a very good bill and must be dug out of the disarmament and arms control select committee, Mrs Leadbetter told a meeting in Christchurch, which was organised by the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone committee. She said she would like the bill to be made law by Christmas.

However, she said the proposals put forward by the Member of Parliament for Marlborough, Mr Kidd, for a nuclear-free South .Pacific, must be opposed. They could be used by the Government to side-step the

important issues. The visit of the American nuclear warship, U.S.S. Texas, had stirred a lot of public feeling in Auckland, she said. The campaign for Nuclear Disarmament had a higher public profile, and stirrings within the National Party caucus showed they were close to achieving some of their goals. However, she said this had to be done on a national basis.

Members of the New Zealand peace movement plan to hold an alternative A.N.Z.U.S. council meeting in Wellington next year, a peace campaigner, Mr Owen Wilkes, told the meeting.

It would comprise members of A.N.Z.U.S. countries who were opposed to things being done in the name of that organisation, and would coincide with the real A.N.Z.U.S. council meeting to be held in June or July.