M.P.s ‘fiendishly exposed’

Press, 22 June 1984, Page 4

M.P.s ‘fiendishly exposed’

NZPA staff correspondent Washington The Secretary of Defence, Mr Denis McLean, yesterday outlined to an American audience the problems of New Zealand politicians who he said were “fiendishly exposed” to electoral pressures, such as the nuclear debate, which generated “an awful lot of clamour.”

Mr McLean, who is giving several speeches in Washington, was addressing the American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research, a Washington-based “think tank.”

He traced the defence thinking of New Zealand governments and the atti-

tude of the population at large to the days when American whalers and sealers had visited New Zealand.

Mr McLean argued that the perspective changed after World War I, when he said New Zealand lost a lot of potential leaders and slumped into a lackadaisical attitude which changed the country’s outlook from Pacific to “empire.” New Zealand thinking had only relatively recently begun to switch back to the Pacific, he said. Long periods of relative peace and the spread of education had made New ZealanArs aware of internationaf issues, such as

nuclear ones, Mr McLean said. That meant politicians were very conscious now of the debate such issues could generate. One questioner asked whether New Zealand was now “reluctantly” pulling back from its larger role because of the cost of modern weapons systems and technology. He asked the secretary to compare this with the attitude of the Labour Government in Australia, typified as concentrating on the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and on Australia’s emergence as a regional power giving up interest “forward defence.” y. z Mr McLean answered

that New Zealand had reached out deliberately into the world, because it was so small. He said New Zealand participation in the Sinai peace-keeping force, where troops mingled with Australians was an example. A number of questions dealt with the election and New Zealand’s Ambassador to the United States, Sir Lancelot Adams-Schneider, a former National Party Minister, suggested that Labour Party policy on “some aspects of A.N.Z.U.S. — I don’t want to go into them,” — had not yet been written. There were “some differences” between National

and Labour, he said, and there could be some interesting developments during the campaign.

Mr McLean and Sir Lancelot, in answer to a question on the generation gap, said they believed that when “the chips were down,” young New Zealanders would rally in the same way that the country did in World War 11. Mr McLean met the United States Secretary of Defence, Mr Caspar Weinberger, but said it was a courtesy call.

His other discussions at the Pentagon centred on “housekeeping” matters such 0 budgetary problems and systems management.