Nats' nuclear policy lacks credibility, says Goff

National's promise to repeal anti-nuclear legislation but not have nuclear ships come here will have no credibility with the New Zealand public, says Foreign Minister Phil Goff.

"National's leader, Don Brash, has already been caught out telling a different story to the New Zealand public this week from what he promised an American Congressional delegation in Auckland in January.

"Dr Brash told the media this week that 'he had made no personal decision on where he believed National should go with the policy'.

However back in January, speaking in private to an American Congressional delegation, he promised that 'if National was government, the ban on nuclear ships would be gone by lunchtime'.

"This is straight duplicity. Dr Brash should front up and tell New Zealanders why he is not prepared to admit to them what he has told the Americans.

"It just lacks credibility for him to say now that he could not recall what he had said, and that he considered the conversation to be private. Saying the conversation was private actually admits that the agenda is a secret one.

"Most New Zealanders in any case will respond 'Yeah Right' to the proposition that National will repeal the legislation but keep the ban.

Taken together with Dr Brash's view that we should have sent troops to Iraq as part of the invasion force because it might offer an economic benefit, National has clearly differentiated itself from Labour on foreign policy.

"New Zealanders have clearly indicated that they support a nuclear-free New Zealand and their country making its own decisions as a sovereign country.

"Dr Brash will get no sympathy from New Zealanders for repealing our anti-nuclear legislation and putting the lives of young New Zealanders at risk solely in the hope that these actions might somehow reap commercial advantage," Mr Goff said.

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