CLEAN & GREEN?

“The United States is poised to drop its ban on military exercises with New Zealand. The ban on military exercises, imposed by former President Ronald Reagan, has been in place since 1985…Mr Key has also been invited to the anti-nuclear proliferation summit of about 40 countries to be hosted in Washington in April by President Obama…High on the agenda of meetings next week with Mr Key and Foreign Minister Murray McCully will be upcoming talks about the TransPacific Partnership. This is a four-country free trade agreement – begun by New Zealand and Singapore – that is to be expanded to cover four more countries, including the United States.” says Audrey Young in The Herald. Interestingly, it`s not long since we were being bullied to lighten up on nuclear free or miss out on a free trade deal with the US like Australia`s.

Australia ranks outside the top 10 nations for environmental sensitivity: Sweden ranks top of that list, followed by New Zealand. What are needed are simple, big-picture gestures from the <Australian> Government, particularly when it comes to the environment and indigenous issues, that will play well both locally and internationally. The success of New Zealand’s tourism strategy is often quoted as something to which Australia should aspire, and it’s worth noting in the current climate that our near neighbour carries little of the environmental baggage Australia has, despite being even further away from most places. But New Zealand has reaped the benefits of making big environmental gestures decades ago.

says Tim Riches, FutureBrand Australia. Of course, the biggest gesture Riches is referring to is Nuclear Free New Zealand. You may ask is nuclear disarmament an environmental issue? I think so. After all, a nuclear winter would make global warming look like a picnic On the Beach.

New Zealand became Nuclear Free, although it took almost 3 years to become official. Under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987, territorial sea and land of New Zealand became nuclear-free zones. The Act prohibits “entry into the internal waters of New Zealand 12 miles (22.2 km) radius by any ship whose propulsion is wholly or partly dependent on nuclear power” and bans the dumping of radioactive waste within the nuclear-free zone, as well as prohibiting any New Zealand citizen or resident “to manufacture, acquire, possess, or have any control over any nuclear explosive device.” (Wikipedia)

Eloquent Prime Minister David Lange (later Sir) proudly took it to the world with highlights including a widely publicised Oxford debate against American Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell. Other outcomes were exclusion of military contact with the United States for a couple of decades, a successful case at the Hague World Court, and military support for protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Lange’s work built on the stand against nuclear testing in the Pacific taken a decade earlier by his fellow Labour Prime Minister Norm Kirk.

Our military treaty with the United States and Australia, ANZUS, did not require unconditional access for military machinery of the other partners. However, the United States remained firm on its “neither confirm nor deny” policy in relation to whether vessels were carrying nuclear arms.

When New Zealand and Australia aligned themselves with the United States via the ANZUS agreement in 1951, they effectively accepted the protection of what some described as the nuclear umbrella. Nuclear weapons played a major part in the United States’ military arrangements, and the possible use of nuclear weapons or nuclear-powered vessels was implicit in any United States response to an attack on New Zealand.

Prime Minister David Lange made it clear that New Zealand was no longer interested in supporting the nuclear deterrent philosophy.

There is only one thing more dangerous than being attacked by nuclear weapons and that is being protected by them.

The USS Buchanan was refused entry in 1985, and ANZUS went cold.

The bombing of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour in 1985 remains the only example anywhere in the world of state-sponsored terrorism by one OECD Government in the territory of another. Portuguese-born photographer Fernando Pereira lost his life as a result of the blast.

The ship had been preparing to sail to Mururoa Atoll to protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. The incident is quickly recognized as an act of French terrorism, and leads to the arrest of two French agents, Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart.

The attack had the opposite effect to that hoped for by the French. It galvanised New Zealanders’ support for the nuclear free policy.

New Zealand attends the <1985> Pacific Forum nations meeting in Rarotonga and is instrumental in drafting a treaty declaring the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific.

Daryl Tarte, in his excellent semi-fictional work Fiji, postulates that the United States covertly supported the first Fiji coup in 1987 because the legitimate Government of the day was leaning towards following New Zealand’s Nuclear Free Pacific lead.

Kiwis have become very modest about their nuclear free achievement. It’s no mean feat for a tiny country to stand up to the greatest power on the planet. But tall poppy syndrome must be resisted. We have almost unique status in putting nuclear disarmament right up there on our list of national priorities – a generation ahead of many. It’s real evidence that we are working for, and taking risks for our clean and green badge through global leadership.

Many local authorities worldwide have declared themselves “nuclear-free”. However, this label is largely symbolic, since most local authorities would be powerless to stop the construction of a nuclear plant if one was planned for the area. In the case of New Zealand its status as a nuclear-free zone is not symbolic but enshrined in the nation’s legislation. New Zealand was the first Western-allied nation to legislate towards a nuclear free zone, effectively renouncing the nuclear deterrent… New Zealand’s three decade anti-nuclear campaign is the only successful movement of its type in the world which resulted in the nation’s nuclear-free zone status being enshrined in legislation. (Wikipedia)

A generation since the Rainbow Warrior bombing, as Obama starts to dream of the possibility of nuclear disarmament, New Zealand remains staunchly nuclear free. Through various Governments lead by either Labour or National, it continually polls as an issue that Kiwis are non-negotiable on. We do have a legitimate claim to being a clean and green leader. It is not only something that we have inherited by good luck. We would do well to shout more about our early-adopter role in a potentially nuclear weapons-free world. Perhaps the time is now right for others to listen.

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Tags: 100% Pure New Zealand, clean & green, clean & green NZ, Clean and Green, clean and green NZ, Kaitiakitanga, nuclear free, Tim Riches, TransPacific Partnership

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 2:24 pm and is filed under 100% Pure New Zealand, Clean & Green, Foreign Affairs, Kaitiakitanga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.