A.N.Z.U.S. comment ‘insensitve, arrogant’

Press, 26 April 1989, Page 9

A.N.Z.U.S. comment ‘insensitve, arrogant’

By

PETER Luke

in Wellington

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, has attacked the Anzac Day announcement about A.N.Z.U.S. by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, as “insensitive, arrogant and wrong.”

Mr Bolger yesterday repeated his party’s “mutual trust” policy on A.N.Z.U.S., which first emerged just before the 1987 General Election. “In 1990, the next National Government will work to rebuild our security alliances with the United States and the United Kingdom,” he said. “We will do so on the basis of mutual trust — that they understand and accept our wish to keep our region free of nuclear weapons and that we will trust them to respect our position.” Mr Lange had gone too far and would have stunned most New Zealanders with his announcement. “He is insensitive to make such an announcement on a day when New Zealanders commemorate those who gave their lives for their country in war efforts

shared by the ally he now spurns. “He is arrogant to make such an announcement without giving notice of it in New Zealand to the people he claims to represent, before he left for the United States,” said Mr Bolger. “He is wrong in his attempt to write an end to New Zealand’s participation in the main defence alliance underpinning the security of our region.” It was also wrong to have spoken before discussing it with Australia, said Mr Bolger, who then referred to Mr Lange’s own Yale speech. “He says New Zealand’s defence alliance with the United States is a dead letter, but where Australia goes, we go.” “Under Mr Lange we go everywhere with Australia, excepfas a partner in the A.N.Z.U.S. defence alliance with the United States, which the Australian Government

declares is a vital element in securing the peace of our region.” Both leaders’ comments mark the first big public re-emergence of the A.N.Z.U.S. issue since the 1987 General Election. Mr Lange’s last big speech on A.N.Z.U.S. was made on August 6, 1987, in which he declared the alliance was “unequivocally revealed in the last three years to be a. nuclear alliance.” “As long as it retains that character it is no use to New Zealand and New Zealand had better make arrangements which are relevant to our own circumstances,” he said in 1987. That speech was made in the context of what was widely viewed, although denied by National, as a pre-election change of tack in the Opposition’s stance on A.N.Z.U.S.

Essentially Mr Bolger had said in July, 1987, that the Opposition did not want nuclear weapons in New Zealand but that ship visits could resume under the policy of neither confirm nor deny. Mr Bolger said then that he did not believe the United States or Britain would ignore a National Government’s opposition to visits by nuclear-armed ships. Throughout the 1987 campaign the Government challenged the Opposition to say categorically that no nuclear-armed Ships would visit under its policy. Mr Lange yesterday appeared to suggest that this question remained politically live. He said when the electorate at large considered the options between Labour and National it had only one judgment to make: “Do they want nuclear weapons in New Zealand.”