New concessions in legislation ruled out

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 4

New concessions in legislation ruled out

NZPA staff correspondent

Canberra The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer yesterday vehemently rejected assertions that New Zealand had made any new concessions in the anti-nuclear legislation just drafted in Wellington.

Reports in New Zealand of a television interview in Canberra say that the Government is backing away from its ban on nucleararmed ships. Commenting yesterday, Mr Palmer said the position he had stated on nucleararmed ships was unchanged from that made public many months ago. He said that he was explaining the policy for an Australian audience that had not caught up on the way New Zealand . has tried to ease the dispute with the United States over the entry of its ships to New Zealand ports. Outlining the draft legislation for an A.B.C. current affairs programme, Mr Palmer said the New Zealand Government would make the final decision on whether a visiting ship was carrying nuclear weapons. He said that to do so New Zealand would want to know where the ship had come from and where it

was going so that judgments could be made on whether it was carrying nuclear arms, thereby not requiring the United States to compromise its policy of not confirming or denying the presence of weapons. Asked whether that was giving a little ground in the row, Mr Palmer agreed it was and told the interviewer it would not appeal to the peace movement in New Zealand and cause some political flak. . However, Mr Palmer said yesterday that his comments were no different from those made before he visited the United States in September. “We made it very clear then that we were going to make our own assessment of whether vessels were carrying nuclear weapons,” he said.

“If they were not, we would let them in. That was to avoid confronting the neither confirm nor deny policy Of the Americans. “There is nothing new in it. It is new to the Australian audience because they did not understand it, because they are not familiar with the way in which this issue had been developed in New Zealand,” he said. Mr Palmer said an

outright prohibition of nuclear-capable ships, such as contained in the bill introduced in Parliament by Mr Richard Prebble while Labour was in Opposition, would have run completely foul of the United States policy. “To that extent, this (the policy as stated in September and contained in the latest draft legislation) was a concession, and it was one that was made a considerable period ago.

“It is a concession on the Prebble bill,” Mr Palmer said.

“We will have to wait arid see,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr Palmer had a further round of meetings with Australian ministers yesterday.

He said he made it clear that New Zealand was determined to continue its role in the South Pacific with conventional military co-operation with both the United States and Australia, but would not back off its nuclear policy.

“The ’ Australians have made it clear that in spite of the difficulties, they are determined to keep and strengthen their relations with New Zealand,” Mr Palmer said.