I am going to say something unusual for me and praise actions taken by this Government. Its promotion of a United Nation’s resolution which states that it is in the interest of humanity that nuclear weapons never be used again under any circumstances is both rational and laudable. Good on them. It appears that National realise the deep feelings against Nuclear weapons held by Kiwis and John Key was wise to rule out Don Brash’s previous desire that the Nuclear free legislation be gone by the lunchtime of the next National Government’s first day.
But Tony Abbott’s Government does not exhibit such principled behaviour.
Australia’s newly elected Abbott Government applied secret diplomatic pressure to undermine a New Zealand led push towards nuclear disarmament last year, newly released documents show.
Australian diplomats worked to counter nuclear disarmament moves on humanitarian grounds by 16 countries including New Zealand according to recently declassified ministerial submissions, cables and emails from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade obtained by theSydney Morning Herald.
Following the election of Australia’s Tony Abbott, New Zealand in October requested Australia endorse a 125 nation joint statement at the United Nations highlighting the humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons.
However Australia refused after taking exception to the statement’s wording that it was in the interests of humanity that nuclear weapons were never used again “under any circumstances”.
The New Zealand led campaign seeks to apply a similar international prohibition on the use of nuclear weapons as already exists for chemical and biological weapons.But Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has been reported as saying that approach was counterproductive.
“The reality is that disarmament cannot be imposed this way”, the Sydney Morning Herald reports her saying.
“Just pushing for a ban would divert attention from the sustained, practical steps needed for effective disarmament.”
Abbott is showing signs of being as bad a Prime Minister as liberals thought he would be. He is that appalling that Rick Santorum thinks that he is a hardliner the American conservatives could learn something from. Santorum is an odious conservative who is the subject of possibly the most famous Google bomb ever and Australians must be ashamed that their Prime Minister is spoken of so highly by someone like him.
Abbott’s justification for opposing what is a totally reasonable position is that nuclear deterrence must be maintained. We have to retain nuclear weapons so that we never use them and by getting rid of them there is the risk we will use them.
John Key was relaxed at the Australian undermining of New Zealand’s position. He said:
‘It’s kind of inevitable we might take a slightly different stance to a country like Australia that produces uranium and is part of ANZUS. It’s just one of those things where they come from a slightly different perspective. They are part of ANZUS, there’s just different factors that might play into their thinking when it comes to nuclear disarmament.”
The basic rationale for Abbott’s position is that for its defence the West needs to preserve the possible killing of millions of human beings and the devastation of major urban centres either by way of a first strike or a retaliatory strike in the hope that this will mean that such a strike will never occur. Yes this is as crazy as it sounds.
The insanity of the concept of deterrence is clear because it is supported by Sarah Palin. Referring to the Crimera she said that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke. She appears to believe that nukeing Russia is a possible solution for the Ukraine problem. A system that allows this woman the prospect of being a heart beat away from control of the nuclear button is just too scary to countenance.
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