National loss blamed on A.N.Z.U.S. issue

Press, 25 July 1985, Page 40

National loss blamed on A.N.Z.U.S. issue

NZPA-AAP Canberra The New Zealand National Party lost the last election by abdicating its responsibility to spell out the reasons for active membership of A.N.Z.U.S., the president of the National Party, Mrs Sue Wood, has told the Liberal Party Federal Council in Canberra. Mrs Wood said that her party, which was then the Government, had decided against arguing its case on A.N.Z.U.S. and ship visits at the 1984 election on the grounds that it would stir up the issue and harden attitudes. “That decision was not only wrong; it would have been too late anyway,” she said. “By abdicating this responsibility, what we did was we left the political ground fertile for a highly organised anti-nuclear movement which comprises an alliance of neo-Marxist trade unionists, the intellectual Left, the Physicians for Peace, the churches, and all fellow travellers. They successfully mobilised New Zealanders.” Mrs Wood said the New Zealand Labour Party articulated the growing fear of nuclear arms so successfully that even National Party women campaigned in the main centres. New Zealanders were led to believe they could say

“no” to United States warships and remain full and active members of the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance, she said. The naivety and hypocrisy of this position were deplorable. “The bitter irony of Labour’s current position is that we have been cut off from our allies, and therefore from the very forum we want to influence in the urgency of the move to verifiable, arms reduction,” Mrs Wood said. “We should above all else begin a major campaign to educate and remind New Zealanders that bravery comes from all — it does not stand alone.” Mrs Wood said the prevailing view in New Zealand was that the country was too small and too insignificant to be vulnerable, and so why court danger by inviting nuclear-powered ships? However, as a small nation, New Zealand should give close attention to its close friends, she said. “We share the same strategic bed, though Australia is on the vulnerable side.” Mrs Wood said the New Zealand National Party was totally committed to restoring the country’s place in the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance, and it looked forward to the challenge of regaining the emotional high ground.