Shipley Needs To Get Bradford Under Control
Disarmament Minister Matt Robson is asking the Opposition
leader Jenny
Shipley to reign in her defence
spokesperson, after Mr Bradford today
appeared to
denounce international diplomacy and conciliation.
In a
press release this morning, Mr Bradford described support
for
diplomatic initiatives in international conflict as
'Noddy land' and 'sweet
talking.'
"Every stable country
in the world places a heavy emphasis on
avoiding
conflict, through a mix of conciliation,
diplomacy and aid," Matt Robson
said.
"The question for
Mr Bradford is: Does National support disarmament
and
international efforts to avoid conflict or does he
want an international
'shoot first and ask questions
later' approach?
"National in Government had a Disarmament
Minister and participated in some
important conciliation
efforts ? notably in Bouganville, where the full
range of
military, diplomatic and development aid was used. For
National to
walk away from that approach would be
extremely damaging."
Matt Robson says National can't bring
itself to tell the truth about the
Labour-Alliance
coalition's commitment to increase defence spending.
"Here
is a fact for Mr Bradford: defence spending is going up. Mr
Bradford
keeps claiming the opposite, because he doesn't
have the intellectual grunt
to debate the facts.
"Now
he's making it worse. He's not just misrepresenting the
Government's
position. He is publicly advocating the
abandonment of peaceful conflict
resolution
strategies.
"If Mrs Shipley still has any control over her
caucus she will get this
wayward MP under control," Matt
Robson
said.
Ends