Bolger stirs up no-nukes debate
13 August 2005
Former prime minister Jim Bolger has weighed into the anti-nuclear debate, suggesting it is time the issue was put back on the political agenda.
His comments, which come as National has been thrust on to the back foot over its nuclear stance, throw a further spotlight on what has turned into a heated election-year debate.
They echo those of outgoing United States ambassador Charles Swindells who urged New Zealand to join America around the table for talks about whether the nuclear-free impasse could be resolved.
Mr Bolger, a former National Party leader and New Zealand ambassador to the US, used an export conference in Auckland to raise the nuclear free issue, after lauding former Labour prime minister David Lange for his stand against nuclear weapons.
But Mr Bolger said a distinction existed between nuclear weapons and nuclear propulsion.
The issue has become the major obstacle to closer defence ties with the US.
He later defended his decision to raise the issue.
"If we decide no change is contemplated, no side wants to change, that's fine, let's move on and forget it.
"But at the moment we just dance around the issue and my message to the audience is that no issue should be so sensitive that friends can't talk about it," he said.
Both countries would need to compromise if a way was to be found around the impasse.
A former US State Department official, Kenneth Dam, also used the conference to speak out against the anti-nuclear impasse, saying the global environment had changed since it was imposed 20 years ago.
Restrictions on joint military exercises, in existence since the nuclear ban, stopped the US and New Zealand working together against terrorism threats.
Mr Bolger's intervention will not be welcomed by Labour.
His comments are also unlikely to be welcomed by National, whose conflicting statements have allowed Labour to make its position on the nuclear-free legislation an election issue.
Charles Finny, a former high-ranking Foreign Affairs and Trade official who is now Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce chief executive, accused the Government of "anti-American political posturing" over its attacks on National.
He urged Labour to pull down its billboards targeting Dr Brash over the nuclear issue and military intervention in Iraq, or risk any hope of a free trade agreement with the US.
13 August 2005
Former prime minister Jim Bolger has weighed into the anti-nuclear debate, suggesting it is time the issue was put back on the political agenda.
His comments, which come as National has been thrust on to the back foot over its nuclear stance, throw a further spotlight on what has turned into a heated election-year debate.
They echo those of outgoing United States ambassador Charles Swindells who urged New Zealand to join America around the table for talks about whether the nuclear-free impasse could be resolved.
Mr Bolger, a former National Party leader and New Zealand ambassador to the US, used an export conference in Auckland to raise the nuclear free issue, after lauding former Labour prime minister David Lange for his stand against nuclear weapons.
But Mr Bolger said a distinction existed between nuclear weapons and nuclear propulsion.
The issue has become the major obstacle to closer defence ties with the US.
He later defended his decision to raise the issue.
"If we decide no change is contemplated, no side wants to change, that's fine, let's move on and forget it.
"But at the moment we just dance around the issue and my message to the audience is that no issue should be so sensitive that friends can't talk about it," he said.
Both countries would need to compromise if a way was to be found around the impasse.
A former US State Department official, Kenneth Dam, also used the conference to speak out against the anti-nuclear impasse, saying the global environment had changed since it was imposed 20 years ago.
Restrictions on joint military exercises, in existence since the nuclear ban, stopped the US and New Zealand working together against terrorism threats.
Mr Bolger's intervention will not be welcomed by Labour.
His comments are also unlikely to be welcomed by National, whose conflicting statements have allowed Labour to make its position on the nuclear-free legislation an election issue.
Charles Finny, a former high-ranking Foreign Affairs and Trade official who is now Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce chief executive, accused the Government of "anti-American political posturing" over its attacks on National.
He urged Labour to pull down its billboards targeting Dr Brash over the nuclear issue and military intervention in Iraq, or risk any hope of a free trade agreement with the US.
