No coup link in Bolger speech

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 3

No coup link in Bolger speech

By

PETER LUKE

in Wellington The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, stopped well short of linking New Zealand foreign policy with the Fiji coup, in a speech at Te Kuiti last evening. Mr Bolger had created intense interest among journalists on Saturday, when he seemed to suggest that the Government’s anti-nuclear policy had created South Pacific instability, and the Fiji coup arose from this. The coup was mentioned again by Mr Bolger last evening, when he said that democracy was “a rare and fragile” form of

government around the world. The expulsion of a Soviet diplomat from New. Zealand, and the Libyan People’s Bureau from Australia, and the Fiji coup all dispelled the myth that the South Pacific was a stable, untroubled region, Mr Bolger said. But the only link between the coup and the policy was when Mr Bolger said that New Zealand had lost the benefit of a security alliance “at a time of’ growing instability in the region. Mr Bolger also said that New Zealand must assist the re-establishment of democracy in Fiji.