Dairy industry warned of A.N.Z.U.S. reaction

Press, 28 September 1984, Page 33

Dairy industry warned of A.N.Z.U.S. reaction

PA Wellington The Opposition member of Parliament for Manawatu, Mr Michael Cox, has suggested that the daily industry’s future is in jeopardy because of Labour’s row with the United States over the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance. New Zealand’s future A.N.Z.U.S. role is in doubt because of its policy to ban nuclear-armed and nuclearpowered warships from its ports. Addressing a dairy factory managers’ conference, Mr Cox said that the dairy industry should bring, pressure on the Labour Government to reverse its stance. He said the American Administration’s handling of pressures from the United States farming lobby was “as much a part of the A.N.Z.U.S. pact as if it were

written into the agreement”. United States surplus dairy stocks last year amounted to 1,159,000 tonnes.

“When you consider that New Zealand’s total export tonnage is 590,000 you will see why United States dairy farmers are justifiably concerned about the imports of dairy products from any other country in the world. “So why does the United States Administration still allow New Zealand to export a considerable amount of our dairy produce to the United States?

“The answer is extraordinarily simple: the United States and the New Zealand Governments are friendly Powers.”

The. agreement to discuss gifts of American dairy surpluses to countries where

New Zealand had markets was also an unwritten part of the A.N.Z.U.S. agreement, he said.

America had an uneasy relationship with the E.E.C. and woulu love to sell or give its dairy surpluses to markets tenuously occupied by the E.E.C.

They were also New Zealand’s markets, and Mr Cox said he believed America would hold off because of New Zealand’s difficult position'.

“Now is the time for your industry to jump up and down and make one hell of a row about your future,” Mr Cox said. “Do not listen to the consensus seekers who at this stage do not want to rock the total boat. “Your lifeboat is about to

be swamped, your future is about to melt away as quickly as a pound of butter in the midday sun. “As a pressure group — and you are that — you must make sure that does not happen. You must make sure that (Prime Minister) David Lange’s non-negoti-able position on A.N.Z.U.S. is reversed.”

Mr Cox said that in an imperfect world he believed that peace came from strength and not weakness.

“As a by-product of that argument and the capitulation of David Lange and his Labour Government to his Left Wing — who would sooner see themselves Red than dead and would prefer Soviet ships in the Pacific — is the demise of the dairy industry,” Mr Cox said.