Goff Phil: Motions — Nuclear-Free Legislation—20th Anniversary 
Goff Phil: Motions — Nuclear-Free Legislation—20th Anniversary 
[Volume:639;Page:9759] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control) 
: 
 I move  
That this House note that 8 June 2007 is the 20th anniversary of the passing by this House of the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone Disarmament and Arms Control Act 1987 and resolve that New Zealand should continue to work for a nuclear weapon – free world; and that in striving for a world free of nuclear weapons the House call for: the implementation and strengthening of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty including the unequivocal undertaking made by nuclear weapon States in 2000 to move towards the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals; the expansion and strengthening of nuclear weapon – free zones and a nuclear weapon – free Southern Hemisphere; the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty; the enactment of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty; and the universal implementation of nuclear non-proliferation instruments such as the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 
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Twenty years ago this month on 8 June 1987 the fourth Labour Government passed through this House legislation that committed New Zealand to being nuclear-free. In moving the third reading of the legislation Prime Minister David Lange said that it represented “a fundamental reassessment of what constitutes our security.” He said that nuclear weapons did not guarantee New Zealand’s security but were detrimental to it. 
The legislation at the time was controversial. It was bitterly opposed by the National Opposition. National leader Jim Bolger called it “an exercise in futility”. Periodically since then political parties opposed to being nuclear-free or political parties that adopt a non-nuclear stance as an opportunistic position rather than an article of faith have attempted to challenge the legislation. But Lange was prophetic when he stated that “The bill will not allow any successive New Zealand Government to reverse that policy without first going through the test of democratic opinion at the general election and secondly without subjecting its legislative process for repeal to the scrutiny of an informed House of Representatives and the general public.” With the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders supporting this country’s nuclear-free status our being clean green and non-nuclear has become an essential part of our identity. The policy has stayed—it was Don Brash who was gone by lunchtime. 
The Labour Party opposition to nuclear weapons is of course longstanding. At the height of the cold war in 1959 the then Prime Minister Walter Nash at the United Nations stood apart from our ANZUS partners to support a treaty to ban nuclear testing. In 1973 Norman Kirk proudly sent a frigate up to the testing zone at Mururoa to protest at French nuclear testing. Martyn Finlay took a case to the International Court of Justice to end atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons—and shortly thereafter that testing did indeed cease. 
The fourth Labour Government passed the legislation we are commemorating today—the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone Disarmament and Arms Control Act—to set out in statute a prohibition on nuclear weapons in New Zealand and visits by nuclear-powered ships. It was the strongest way we could express our view that far from providing security the nuclear arms race posed a threat to humanity. Human history of course has been marked by conflict but never before had human beings possessed the ability to entirely destroy their own planet and with it humanity—an ability we gained with the possession of nuclear weapons. 
This legislation showed two things. First it showed that New Zealand was prepared to lead the world in opposition to the existence and the build up of nuclear arms. Secondly it showed our readiness as a small but proudly independent nation to speak out for the values we believed in. In that sense the nuclear-free legislation has come not only to embody our strong opposition to weapons of mass destruction but also to represent the assertion of our right to promote our firmly held beliefs without the need first to seek the concurrence of stronger friends or allies. 
Twenty years on is this legislation still relevant and necessary? The answer I believe is an unequivocal “Yes”. There continues to be the need for New Zealand to provide a strong voice for nuclear disarmament and against proliferation. The cold war may be over with some reduction in stockpiles of nuclear weapons but we have not yet achieved the elimination of those weapons. Indeed today there is still a stockpile of over 27000 nuclear warheads each with an explosive force between eight and 40 times greater than that of the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. 
Just last week in response to the United States’ plans for a nuclear missile defence shield Russia tested new long-range missiles. President Putin went as far as declaring that the nuclear arms race had restarted. This year China fired a missile into space to destroy a satellite and progress has not yet been made on preventing the extension of an arms race into outer space. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has still not come into effect negotiations have not even begun on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and the conference on disarmament in Geneva has not progressed for more than a decade. Thousands of nuclear weapons remain on a hair-trigger alert. There would be little time to prevent retaliation if a missile were fired by accident or miscalculation. 
The number of countries possessing nuclear weapons has increased by at least three—India Pakistan and North Korea—and probably four with Israel as well. Just 4 years ago two of those countries India and Pakistan were on the brink of a conflict that could have become a nuclear conflict. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency 30 more countries are capable of going nuclear in a short period. Iran has given the international community grounds for believing that it is seeking nuclear weapons capability which adds new dangers to an already volatile region given its hostile relationship with Israel. Terrorist groups are openly acknowledging that their quest is for weapons of mass destruction thereby creating new nightmare scenarios in the post- 9/11 environment. 
Not only does our nuclear-free legislation remain relevant but the leadership stance that New Zealand took in 1987 continues to be necessary. Together with likeminded countries—Ireland Sweden Brazil Mexico South Africa and Egypt—New Zealand makes up the New Agenda Coalition which continues to push initiatives in vital multilateral negotiations such as the non-proliferation treaty. With Brazil we are at the forefront of a push to bring nuclear weapon – free zones together into a Southern Hemisphere nuclear weapon – free zone. We strongly support efforts to stop proliferation through active participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative. Under the G8 global partnership we have contributed to projects to destroy chemical weapons in Russia and to close down the last plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in Siberia. This year we are embarking on a new project to help stop the smuggling of fissile material across the Russia-Ukraine border. 
 New Zealand contributes to and implements the policies of all export control groups designed to prevent the proliferation of nuclear goods and technologies. We comply with all United Nations Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency resolutions relating to weapons of mass destruction. We also acknowledge that conventional weapons have killed literally tens of millions of people since the Second World War in localised conflicts. As Kofi Annan has said their effect has been to act as weapons of mass destruction. We have played a key role in opposition to landmines and cluster munitions and in support of an arms trade treaty. 
I believe that New Zealand can be proud of its role in disarmament and non-proliferation as well as the specific legislation we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of in the House today. Our greatest challenge may be that having survived six decades with nuclear weapons the world has become complacent about the dangers they pose. I believe that Albert Einstein’s warning remains relevant. He said: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” 
It is with real pride that I stand up as part of a Government that has followed on from our predecessor fourth Labour Government which passed legislation that made New Zealand a leader in the area of opposing the madness of the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and proliferation. We believed it then; we have believed it ever since. We will continue until we achieve the goal of the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and most particularly of those weapons that are nuclear weapons. Thank you.