Tasmania still hoping for Antarctic base

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 3

Tasmania still hoping for Antarctic base

The Tasmanian state Premier, Mr Robin Gray, is continuing discreetly to lobby the United States Administration to move its Antarctic supply base from Christchurch to Hobart.

His proposal now appears to be supported by the retiring United States Secretary of the Navy, Mr John Lehman. Mr Lehman, who visited Hobart recently, has been widely reported as suggesting that New Zealand should lose the United States Naval Support Force Antarctica in retaliation oyer its antinuclear stands

The United States Antarctic programme is run by the National Science Foundation with logistical support provided by the United States Navy. A spokesman for Mr Gray said yesterday that the Naval Support Force Antarctica would be welcome in Hobart, “but this is still a decision for the United States Administration.”

Mr Lehman recently visited Hobart where he held talks with Mr Gray and was introduced to “several” organisations and individuals who could be involved in providing support services for the base if it shifted from Christchurch. “The situation remains that the Support Force would be welcome here, but it is now in the hands of the diplomats,” the spokesman said. “We are not jumping

up and down over this question. It is over to the United States.”

In May, 1986, Mr Gray held talks with State Department officials during a visit to Washington. In October the state’s Deputy Premier, Mr Geoff Pearsall, indicated that a “passive” offer to accommodate the base in Hobart still stood.

“It is a matter of saying ‘Look, here is a place’ if anyone decides that there ought to be a removal of the base from New Zealand,” Mr Pearsall said in Christchurch. While the state Premier appears to be adopting a “passive” approach, he does not seem to have lost interest in gaining the base. A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Wellington yesterday repeated earlier statements that Mr Lehman’s comments were his “private views” and did not represent United States policy. There were no “present” plans to move the Support Force, he said. The Deputy Mayor of Christchurch, Mr Maurice Carter, said that the Christchurch City Council would be “most concerned” to see any move to shift the base. “We would do all we could to ensure that it remained in Christchurch,” he said. The Naval Support Force Antarctica employs about 60 New Zealand civilians.