Defence moves a ‘disgrace’

Press, 31 May 1986, Page 32

Defence moves a ‘disgrace’

NZPA-AAP Canberra It was a disgrace that the Australian Government was covertly working on separate defence treaties with New Zealand and the United States, said the Australian Opposition’s defence spokesman, Mr Andrew Peacock.

“It is a disgrace that this Government has been working in a covert manner on two separate treaties,” he said yesterday on Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. “To accept that your country’s most basic treaty has simply unravelled and do nothing about it indicates that you are adopting the attitude of the detached bystander.” Mr Peacock was responding to a statement by a Labour Party backbencher, Mr Alan Evans, a member of the caucus foreign affairs committee, that the idea of separate defence treaties with the United States and New Zealand was well advanced. Mr Evans had said the new treaties would be implemented only if relations between the United States and New Zealand deteriorated and the A.N.Z.U.S. treaty became unworkable.

“Despite denials by the Government over the last 18 months that A.N.Z.U.S. was not in jeopardy, we now have an unknown Labour Party officeholder proclaim the end

of Australia’s most important defence treaty,” Mr Peacock said.

“It says a lot on who and how Government foreign policy is made.”

The United States has treated A.N.Z.U.S. as inoperative since New Zealand banned nucleararmed or nuclearpowered ships from its ports and has threatened to withdraw from the treaty if New Zealand enacts legislation enshrining the ban.

Mr Peacock blamed the Government’s reluctance to mediate between the United States and New Zealand for the likely demise of A.N.Z.U.S., which he called Australia’s “ultimate guarantee.” Mr Peacock said he was concerned that the new bilateral treaty with New Zealand would be stronger than that with the United States. “How can New Zealand, more than the United States, assist Australia in its security and defence?” he said.

An Australian Opposition backbencher, Mr Michael Hodgman, said the Hawke Government had never supported A.N.Z.U.S. — “they have stood by while New Zealand has torn it to shreds.” “On the other hand, the Opposition and 73 per cent of Australians see A.N.Z.U.S. as our principal defence treaty,” he said.