New Zealand becomes nuclear free

In NZHistory's account, New Zealand's nuclear-free movement had its roots in ideas that emerged in the 1960s: a push for an independent, ethical foreign policy that grew out of opposition to the Vietnam War, and environmentalism. Visits by American warships had been controversial long before the 1984 election. The nuclear-powered cruisers USS Truxtun and USS Long Beach attracted protest when they visited in 1976, and Civil Defence set up a public safety headquarters for each visit. American policy was to 'neither confirm nor deny' whether its ships carried nuclear weapons, and most allies chose not to ask. Between 1978 and 1983 opposition to visits by nuclear-armed ships rose from 32 per cent to 72 per cent. Robert Muldoon's National government saw the visits as an important expression of New Zealand's support for ANZUS. On 14 June 1984 the National MP Marilyn Waring withdrew her support for the National caucus; NZHistory says she had been 'savagely attacked' by Muldoon for supporting Labour's Nuclear Free New Zealand Bill the day before. NZHistory gives this as part of the reason Muldoon called an early election, for 14 July.

Labour campaigned against nuclear propulsion and weapons, but not against ANZUS, and swept to power. By the end of 1984 nearly 40 towns and boroughs had declared themselves nuclear-free. David Lange, who was both prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, accepted that ships possibly carrying nuclear weapons should be banned but was at first less certain about nuclear-powered ships; others in his party opposed both. In late 1984 the United States requested a visit by the ageing guided-missile destroyer USS Buchanan, hoping that a perception that it was not nuclear-armed would let it slip under the political radar. NZHistory records that the government said no on 4 February 1985, while Barry Gustafson's Te Ara biography of Lange places the refusal in January. 'Near-uncertainty was not now enough for us,' Lange later explained. Washington severed visible intelligence and military ties, and Secretary of State George Shultz confirmed that the United States would no longer maintain its security guarantee, although the ANZUS treaty structure remained. At a meeting in San Francisco in 1986, according to Wikipedia, the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty security obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access.

The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act received assent and came into force on 8 June 1987. It established the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, covering the country's land and inland waters, its internal waters, its territorial sea and the airspace above them. New Zealand citizens and residents were forbidden to manufacture, acquire, possess or control any nuclear explosive device within the zone. The prime minister could approve the entry of foreign warships into New Zealand's internal waters only if satisfied that they would not be carrying any nuclear explosive device, and the same test applied to foreign military aircraft landing in New Zealand. Entry into internal waters by any ship whose propulsion was wholly or partly dependent on nuclear power was prohibited outright. The Act also banned biological weapons, preserved the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea, and set up a Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control. Its long title also committed it to implementing in New Zealand the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty of 6 August 1985 and other disarmament treaties.

In a largely symbolic response, the United States Congress passed the Broomfield Act, downgrading New Zealand's status from ally to friend. Lange said that if the security alliance was the price New Zealand must pay to remain nuclear-free, 'it is the price we are prepared to pay'. Muldoon, Wikipedia records, called the legislation the 'ANZUS termination bill'. At the August 1987 election Labour increased its majority, and Gustafson records that many traditional National voters showed their approval of either Roger Douglas's free-market policies or Labour's anti-nuclear actions. In 1989, 52 per cent of New Zealanders said they would rather break defence ties than admit nuclear-armed ships, and by 1990 even National had signed up to anti-nuclearism. Trade suffered little: the share of New Zealand's imports from and exports to the United States was higher in 1990 than in 1984.

Robert Ayson and Jock Phillips write on Te Ara that opinion was divided on this foreign-policy turning point. Many celebrated the policy and the willingness to say no to the world's leading power as a sign of an independent foreign policy. Others believed the breach seriously harmed New Zealand's interests, pointing to the armed forces' loss of regular training with the US military and to complications in the relationship with Australia. In their account the non-nuclear position became part of New Zealand's international personality, and by the mid-1990s any party that wanted to govern needed to retain the legislation. Because its repeal was the price the United States wanted for restoring 'normal' defence relations, the two countries reached a stalemate. The 2010 Wellington Declaration sought closer cooperation but did not reintroduce an alliance obligation, and under the 2012 Washington Declaration New Zealand warships were again able to visit US bases.