Australia will not intervene over A.N.Z.U.S., Ministers say

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 6

Australia will not intervene over A.N.Z.U.S., Ministers say

NZPA Sydney The Australian Government yesterday maintained its nonpartisan public stance in the A.N.Z.U.S. dispute between New Zealand and the United States, after the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, raised the prospect of formally withdrawing from the treaty arrangement. Australia’s Minister of Defence, Mr Beazley, and Foreign Minister, Mr Evans, both said Australia would not intervene to help mend the rift. While the Australian Government has reacted tactfully to Mr Lange’s speech describing A.N.Z.U.S. as dead, the Opposition in Canberra and sections of the Australian media have been scathing in their criticism. Senator Evans said the issue had to be resolved bilaterally between the New Zealand and U.S. Governments. “It is a matter of regret so far as Australia is concerned that New Zealand seems bent on this

course, which will obviously make it more difficult at the end of the day to put the three-way pieces of the A.N.Z.U.S. treaty back together again,” Mr Evans said. “But it is essentially something from which we simply stand aside and let the New Zealanders sort it out for themselves.” Mr Beazley repeated the latter sentiment when asked if there was anything Australia could do to improve the relationship between New Zealand and the U.S. “New Zealand and the United States would take umbrage at any assumption that we could do other than that,” he said. Although the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, said that Australia’s defence relationship with New Zealand would be diminished by its absence from A.N.Z.U.S., Mr Beazley emphasised that Australia’s relationship was still good with both countries. Mr Beazley, the principal sales-

man for Australia in trying to pepsuade New Zealand to join the Anzac frigate-building project, said Australia would attempt to preserve what it saw as great value in the partnership it had with its principal allies. “And basically I think we have managed to achieve that,” he said. The Federal Opposition’s spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Mr Spender, has accused New Zealand of “isolationism,” but Australian Democrats’ leader, Ms Haines, yesterday came out in support of Mr Lange, describing his stance on A.N.Z.U.S. as “courageous.” Ms Haines said history had shown that the U.S. saw the treaty as something of more value to itself than Australia or New Zealand. “The Americans have made it clear over the last 20 or so years that they don’t see the A.N.Z.U.S. treaty as something that means they will leap to Australia’s aid or New Zealand’s aid. under

every circumstance,” she said. “They will if there is a nuclear threat, if their own bases are threatened, if the Russians are involved, but they are not planning to otherwise.” Several Australian newspapers featured Mr Lange’s speech prominently on their front pages yesterday. The national daily, the “Australian,” ran the big headline “Shock from Lange: A.N.Z.U.S. pact is dead,” while the headline in a stablemate from Rupert Murdoch’s News, Ltd, the “Daily Telegraph” of Sydney, reads “Allies no more say Kiwis." The "Australian," a frequent critic of New Zealand's antinuclear policy, editorialised that Mr Lange’s speech had more to do with New Zealand's next election than the coming of a nuclear Armageddon. “In short, what Mr Lange is trying to do is to shore up on the Left the votes that his Labour Party is so disastrously losing on its Right,” the paper said.