Hawke angers Ministers

Press, 8 February 1985, Page 1

Hawke angers Ministers

NZPA-Reuter Canberra

At least four senior members of the Australian Federal Cabinet are angry with the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, over the reversal of his original policy on allowing United States use of Australia to monitor American missile tests, said sources in the Labour Party yesterday. “Mad as a rattlesnake” was how Australia’s domestic news agency, the Australian Associated Press, described the feelings of one top Cabinet man, the Foreign Minister, Mr Hayoen, over Mr Hawke’s deci-

sion to withdraw Australian assistance for the MX missile tests.

Mr Hawke’s change of heart came after long telephone calls to close advisers in Australia, the party sources said.

Mr Hayden, whom Mr Hawke succeeded as Labour Party leader, had gone on television earlier this week to defend the original agreement to help in the tests.

The United States was to have used an Air Force base near Sydney for fuel and supplies. Senior representatives of all Labour Party factions said that Mr Hawke would

have won the support of his members of Parliament on the MX issue, although narrowly.

The party’s Left wing, which commands less than a third of the 117-member group, deplored the lack of consultation over the original agreement on the MX tests.

Political analysts said that Mr Hawke’s reversal and the crisis within the A.N.Z.U.S. pact after New Zealand’s refusal to allow port facilities for United States ships with nuclear capability would bolster the Left’s own anti-nuclear policies.

Mr Hawke, who will return home this week-end after visiting Europe and the United States, has come under fire from his Left wing for promoting a plan for a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific that would allow the . passage of nuclear-powered . and nuclear-armed ships. The likely wrangling on an effective nuclear disarmament policy among the various factions of the Labour Party Could undermine the Prime Minister’s credibility as a defender of Australia’s alliance with Washington, the analysts said.