Beazley talks of $25B in defence work

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 8

Beazley talks of $25B in defence work

By

BRENDON BURNS,

political reporter

Defence contracts valued at $25 billion were yesterday dangled in front of New Zealand industry by Australia’s Minister of Defence, Mr Beazley, as a possible follow-on from buying Anzac frigates.

In a speech to the National Press Club in Wellington, he warned that frigates were necessary as the nations of Asia expanded their military capabilities. Mr Beazley said the New Zealand Government had already decided to buy frigates of one kind or another. This clashes with the Labour Party president, Ms Ruth Dyson, who told an anti-frigate rally at Parliament yesterday that there were better and cheaper alternatives. The reference to $25 billion in Australian defence contracts was made by Mr Beazley while answering questions after his speech.

He said New Zealand could gain entree to Australia’s total defence equipment tendering process, which would spend $25 billion in the next 10 years. This was “not necessarily a promise,” said Mr Beazley, but could be a flow-on effect from participation in the Anzac ship project. Any decision against buying Anzac frigates would see a big opportunity for New Zealand industry go out the window, he said.

Mr Beazley estimated the Anzac frigate project alone would provide $1 billion in contracts for New Zealand.

Australia’s position on the project had been misunderstood and this

was damaging its relationship with New Zealand, he said.

Claims that the frigate deal was a way to link New Zealand back into A.N.Z.U.S. were rejected. The ships were part of Australia’s efforts to make its defence forces selfreliant, he said.

There were no immediate threats to Australia and New Zealand, but this was not the way to build a defence policy.

The nations of Asia were growing richer and expanding their military capabilities, said Mr Beazley, particularly maritime forces.

Over the next few years a group of great Powers, including Japan, China and India, would compete for influence and the allegiance of smaller powers. Australia and New Zealand would be among these small but still significant nations.

“None of this presages a direct threat of invastion of Australia or New Zealand” said Mr Beazley. But it meant a strategic environment that was much more fluid and uncertain than at any time since 1945. It was not valid to assume there would be no external power trying to penetrate into the southwest Pacific in the next 25 years.

Large patrol boats, as advocated by some antifrigate campaigners, had problems working in the Bass Strait, let alone Cook

Strait, he said,

The Anzac frigate was the most cost-effective way of spending money. “A smaller, less capable ship would only be sensible if you assume you will not have to fight. If you assume that, why buy warships at all?” Mr Beazley repeated pledges that Australia would go to great lengths to tailor payments to meet New Zealand’s defence budget. The project would create jobs and stimulate the industrial base in New Zealand. Indications were major work would be placed in Canterbury, Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Dunedin and New Plymouth.

Ms Dyson told yesterday’s anti-frigates rally at Parliament that the Anzac ship proposal was now going through the party’s consultative process. But it was not too late to reject it in favour of better and cheaper defence alternatives.

Mr Beazley said he could not make a judgment about the internal workings of the Labour Party in New Zealand. But he noted that party conference votes were not binding on the Government, as they were in Australia.

The Labour Party conference in September voted unanimously against buying frigates from Australia.