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29/04/10 - New Zealanders favour resumption of visits of US warships
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former Prime Minister who succeeded David Lange, recently suggested that visits by American warships could be resumed, because in practice only non-nuclear armed and powered ships could visit New Zealand, the United States having decided to remove tactical nuclear weapons from its conventionally-powered surface warships. Nuclear powered and armed submarines and aircraft carriers are unlikely to be selected by the United States for a visit to New Zealand, because they are known to be nuclear power and/or nuclear armed. Therefore, any visits that might take place would not be in contravention of New Zealand legislation banning the visits of nuclear powered of armed ships.

The New Zealand public is certainly ready for the resumption of such visits as a recent Research New Zealand poll shows.

Three-quarters of New Zealanders 15 years and over favour visits by American warships that are not nuclear powered or armed, the poll shows. Support for such visits is strongest among those 55 years and older at 81 percent, while 64 percent of people under 35 years are in favour. Six percent of those interviewed did not have a view on this. Males also expressed stronger support, some 83 percent being in favour compared with 67 percent of females.Interestingly, Maori and Pacific People at 64 percent were noticeably less supportive of such visits than the rest of the population

The Research New Zealand poll was conducted between 20 and 27 April 2010.
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