Economist sceptical of defence pact

Press, 20 February 1989, Page 3

Economist sceptical of defence pact

PA Wellington An economist, Mr Brian Easton, has poured cold water on hopes New Zealand' may have for developing its military alliance with Australia. He says it may,.not make sense to. be. protected by a regional power whose interests are not New Zealand’s own. Mr Easton told ; a national security seminar in Wellington, organised by the Pacific Institute of Resource Management, that Australia’s political and geographical interests were different from New Zealand’s.

Its hemisphere included Africa, most of Asia and the Middle East, and parts of the Soviet Union. He said the former A.N.Z.U.S. alliance illus-

trated the difficulties of an Anzac alliance. New Zealand would be only a junior partner and it; .wppld, :bQ difficult (orj the ' senior tone■ not to :•< bully. The frigate issue demonstrated this. Despite closer economic relations, the economic interests of Australia and New Zealand.. were i.; riot aligned.!/ ‘ * 1 "Australians are not really interested in C.E.R. They realise that their economic future is with populous Asia to the north, not the Pacific to the east,” said Mr Easton. “Similarly today, the Australian economic dimension is only part of our total interest. Fourfifths of our trade is with other nations, and despite recent inept management which has transferred a

number of New Zealand firms into Australian ownership, the larger proportion of our foreign \ jnvpstors are. f pot Aus(ra-, “We are simply not talking about an economic union where the countries involved are as interconnected as in Europe.” ii Mr , Easton . salt)/ some ■ ’ advocates l of the a Anzac < frigates were saying they .; were the price for stayingin the Anzac alliance. That raised the question of whether the alliance was worth that price. He called for an “open discussion” on whether New Zealand should be in military alliances at all, and suggested defence spending should be cut 22 per cent or $320 million off the 1988-89 Defence vote.