Anti-A.N.Z.U.S. move defeated in Australia

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 16

Anti-A.N.Z.U.S. move defeated in Australia

NZPA-AAP Canberra No case could be made for the abolition of A.N.Z.U.S. or for its dismantling or diminution, Australia’s Foreign Minister, Mr Hayden, has said. Speaking in the foreign affairs debate at the Australian Labour Party conference, Mr Hayden said there was no doubt that “in the good common sense of the Australian public, they overwhelmingly support the alliance.”

Latest opinion polls showed three out of four Australians were unreservedly committed to A.N.Z.U.S., he said, speaking against a move by Leftwing delegates to have Australia revoke the treaty. Ms Joan Coxsedge, of Victoria, moved that Australia should not co-operate with the United States and New Zealand in existing treaty

arrangements which committed Australia to nuclear war strategies, involved Australia , in military conflicts not of its making, and limited its diplomatic independence. Ms Coxsedge said her amendment aimed to seek a balanced relationship with the United States. “To achieve such a balance we would have to assert a properly independent sovereignty, evaluating our own interests and rejecting the dominant partner alliance with the United States,” she said. Australia would have no alternative but to reject the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance and any other such alliances. The treaty was seen to be a defensive umbrella held by the United States to protect Australia from nuclear war but too many people had woken up to the fact that this nuclear umbrella might act as a lightning rod and attract a nuclear attack rather than

prevent it. Ms Coxsedge said Australia’s uncritical endorse|ment of A.N.Z.U.S. had stifled critical debate and inquiry into the treaty. However, Mr Hayden said that under A.N.Z.U.S. Australia’s survival was always going to be a matter of maximum concern to the United States, and he believed the commitments made under A.N.Z.U.S. were not unreasonable. They were ones Australia had squarely acknowledged last year in the review of the alliance. Mr Hayden said it was important for delegates to understand that Ms Coxsedge was not talking for the New Zealand Labour Party when she said its policy was to get out of A.N.Z.U.S. “She does a great disservice to the party by this statement,” said Mr Hayden. Ms Coxsedge’s move against A.N.Z.U.S. was defeated by 57 votes to 37.