Nash: Weapons expo ‘dismaying’
A ‘‘weapons expo’’ subject to protests from hundreds of people is an example of New Zealand’s foreign policy slowly becoming less independent.
Thomas Nash, who was involved in a Nobel Peace Prizewinning disarmament campaign, was among people from Palmerston North who took part in protests against the New Zealand Defence Industry Association forum, which started at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium on Tuesday.
Police arrested nine protesters trying to blockade entrances to the forum, which some are calling a ‘‘weapons expo’’.
One of the men taken away was a disabled man with a walking cane.
The association’s deputy chairman said labelling the forum a ‘‘weapons expo’’ was ‘‘stretching the truth’’, as the event was mainly about bringing together suppliers of services and products to support the defence and national security sectors.
Nash, who was the Green Party’s Palmerston North candidate in the recent election and part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize recently – said the atmosphere at the protest was good.
Nash said it was especially troubling to see American company Lockheed Martin, which has more than 200 New Zealand employees and has a contract to modernise the United States’ nuclear arsenal, involved in the forum.
‘‘For me, with my background in campaigns against this stuff, it’s pretty dismaying to know that a maker of nuclear weapons is making a statement in Wellington.
‘‘It was important for me to get down and be there in solidarity with the people there.’’
New Zealand was thought of as a peaceful country that was against nuclear weapons – something the forum did not link with, Nash said.
‘‘We shouldn’t have it here and we don’t need to have it here,’’ he said.
‘‘If companies like Lockheed Martin want to go around making nuclear weapons, they shouldn’t be here.’’
New Zealand usually had strong independent foreign policy, but events like the forum – which has run for about 20 years – put it in the spotlight.
‘‘If we have been drifting away from that for several years, no matter who the Government of the day is, it’s bad leadership.
‘‘We don’t get any stronger in the eyes of the international community by hosting arms conferences.
‘‘If anything, it is going to weaken our capacity to play a strong independent foreign policy role.’’
Another Palmerston North man at the protest, Clark Ellery, said he was concerned about money being spent on instruments of war when there were other problems to sort out.
Most of the protesting involved sitting down in front of entrances to the stadium and chanting, he said.
‘‘The conference is about them having their voices heard, but we also have our voices.’’
Police had generally acted well, he said.
Police Inspector Neil Banks said he was disappointed with the protesters’ behaviour because they disrupted traffic and created safety problems.
‘‘Police are also aware that further protest activity is planned this week and we will continue to respond as appropriate.’’