Hacker News Reader

Comment by alannallama | Hacker News Reader

I agree with your frustration about the green movement's knee-jerk rejection of nuclear power, but in NZ anti-nuclear policy was a very galvanising touchpoint for the environmental and anti-war movements, so there's a bit more context there. Nuclear-free and the Springbok protests are referenced constantly as progressive wins.

View on HN

"anti-nuclear" mean anti the weapons or anti the power?

both; nuclear-anything is banned in NZ

Untrue. The nuclear-free zone act specifically does not preclude nuclear power generation. The fact that it hasn’t happened is no different from most other places where it hasn’t happened. A combination of fear, nimby, cost, regulation and easier options.

Oops, looks like you're right. Wikipedia says "The nuclear-free zone Act does not prohibit nuclear power plants, nuclear research facilities, the use of radioactive isotopes, or other land-based nuclear activities."

The PET scanner next door and the cyclotron that fuels it beg to disagree.

The NZ anti-nuclear movement was mostly (but not completely) seen as a success against the US forcing their nuclear armed warships upon us (sailing into our harbours) during the cold war, and as a result making us a potential target.

In the end one of the right wing party's lawmakers voted with the left wing party, enough to pass a law, the right wing party used this as an excuse to dissolve parliament and call a national election which they resoundingly lost (the reasons this happened had more to do with the right wing party lying about the state of the economy and getting caught - but a mandate's a mandate) - we don't get nuclear weapons sailing into our country any more

I think your history is a bit off. NZ was declared nuclear-free by David Lange's government. Describing that government as "left wing" is misleading, since the nuclear-free zone was perhaps one of the few things the traditional "left" supported. His government is mostly remembered for the introduction of "Rogernomics", i.e., the introduction of neoliberalism to NZ.

No it's right on, Lange's govt was forced into "Rogernomics" noeliberalism because the previous right wing ("Muldoon") government had secretly borrowed lots of money overseas to prop up a wages and price freeze, and the country was unable to pay that money back when the rest of the world started to devalue our dollar (it went from US$1.25 to US$.50 almost overnight, and stayed that way for 20 years).

Muldoon as PM used the loss of the nuclear ships vote as an excuse to call an election, but was caught out when the chairman of the Reserve Bank came out publicly and explained what was happening to the economy, by then of course it was all too late. Nevertheless we were proud of our Nuclear Free state, even more so when the French terrorists sunk the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour (remember that the previous Labour govt had sailed NZ navy frigates into the French nuclear testing zone to protest atmospheric testing, this wasn't a new thing for Labour)

Alright, Marilyn Waring defected over a nuclear ships bill, but I don't think it passed under that government since Muldoon called an election instead. Muldoon ran the county practically as his personal socialist republic, Think Big, massive borrowing in foreign currencies, restrictions on foreign currency conversion, banking, wage and prices freezes, subsidies to farmers, generous welfare benefits, you name it. Lange's government was forced to float the dollar as their first act, since propping it up was no longer feasible. Their deregulation and privatisation had the (in hindsight) predictable effect of blowing up a bubble of leveraged property speculation, which came to a sudden end in the 1987 sharemarket crash. Good times!

Yes we agree - the Nuclear free moment led to an election, the actual law was finally passed by the new govt.

I headed off on my OE the day after Marilyn Waring crossed the floor, by the time I arrived in the US and had opened a bank account my (still in NZ) savings were worth less than half ... not a fan of the National Party 's economic savvy

Reply on news.ycombinator.com