1951: ANZUS Treaty

August 29, 2024

By AHNZ

The ANZUS Treaty was signed in San Francisco on 1 September 1951 by Carl Berendsen on behalf of New Zealand’s National 1.0 Ministry. With Australia and the USA we now had a tri-tripartite defence treaty.

Then, on 8 June, 1987, Labour 4.0 quit that deal. The Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 became law. Good feelings about being “nuclear free” but who was now protecting New Zealand’s security?

National 5.0 thawed and re-heated some of ANZUS in the early 2010s but we are still estranged. While Australia and the USA expend people and resources New Zealand now free-rides on their protection of us without contributing anything if at all.

Breaking ANZUS warmed the heart of some Baby Boomers and reminded them of their Awakening time of life. In the 1960s their privilege and freedom was so secure that they could take it for granted and offer offence and ingratitude to the elders who had sacrificed to give it to them. Now in Middle Age, that protest generation got a call-back in 1987 to the risky and ‘morally superior’ vibes they enjoyed before. David Lange took the legacy sword and shield grandfather had made to keep the family same but in his hands they became theater props and he broke them. Defending New Zealand was not in mind. After all, God is to to that (it’s in our anthem: God Defend New Zealand.) Impressing the electorate is what was in mind. And, to distract it from Labour 4.0’s revolutionary reforms.

In the same fashion another of grandfather’s legacy was chucked out: Our air combat wing: “When those protesters came to power with Labour 5.0 they finally had their way. They scrapped the air combat No. 75 Squadron in 2001 entirely and left the Skyhawks to decay on the tarmac for 10-odd years. Minister of Defense during this time, Phil Goff, achieved Boomer revenge at last for the parade of 1970.” Ref. 1970: Skyhawk, AHNZ

To my mind the eschewing of ANZUS was a Boomer equivalent of what Generation X kids did in 1995 at Cave Creek. They stepped upon a remote viewing platform over a deadly drop then proceeded to do what they could to over-load it and fail, risking certain death. ANZUS, to New Zealand, is such a broken platform. The difference is that nobody has died yet. We are still in free fall.

My prediction is that we’ll go back to the ANZUS Pact in the end for survival.

Meanwhile, the Boomers get to feel superior and it helps our milk trade to China that we have distanced ourselves from our security partners. When GenX become the new Elder generation it will become politically safe, and probably a military essential, for New Zealand to recognise its allies again. The trouble is that renewing our traditional ties will upset our major trading partner, Communist China. Even as the National 6.0 Ministry thawed defence ties to the USA and Australia it provoked a warning from Boomer politicians Helen Clark and Don Brash…

“Former Prime Minister Helen Clark and her old political rival Don Brash have teamed up to criticise Christopher Luxon, accusing him of making a surprise “radical change in NZ’s foreign policy” that could upset our biggest trading partner, China… issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying it would be “difficult, if not impossible, to maintain” a cordial relationship with China “if the government continues to align its positioning with that of the United States”. – RNZ (July 2024)

As well as a pact, ANZUS was a road sign. By blowing by it we signaled that New Zealand is no longer for the Anglo-Zelandians who founded it and who are now being replaced. The new Asian and Pacific Island majority, and their higher fertility rates, will produce a population that doesn’t have the ties ANZUS bound together. Instead, our major ties as well as our economic dependency will be to Beijing or New Delhi and the people who are going to inherit this country already think of this as the norm.

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Image ref. ANZUS in Revision, Frank P. Donnini (1991;) AHNZ mod (2024)

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