Dr Hon Lockwood Smith
National Party Foreign Affairs & Trade Spokesman
Hon Murray McCully
National Party Sport, Fitness & Leisure Spokesman

24 June 2005

National asks Labour to consult on Zimbabwe

Labour should consult with the National Party over Zimbabwe so that New
Zealand can have a genuinely bipartisan foreign policy on the issue, say
two National MPs.

"A National Government will not be bound by decisions by Labour, over
which there has been no consultation, to ban any Zimbabwe teams from
visiting NZ," say National Party MPs Lockwood Smith and Murray McCully.

"In order to avoid any inconsistencies, the wisest thing would be for Phil
Goff to consult in advance of any such actions.

"National regards Robert Mugabe as a ratbag dictator in charge of a ratbag
regime, whose recent actions are totally reprehensible. On this we clearly
agree with the Government. There is no good reason why the Government
should resist consulting with the Opposition on this matter so close to
the election," the MPs say.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On The Government's Assault On Maori

This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Audrey Young in the NZ Herald has compiled a useful list of the many ways Christopher Luxon plans to roll back the progress made in race relations over the past forty years. He has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. More