New Zealanders set to go to the polls

New Zealand’s relationship with the US could enter a new era of co-operation if the country’s opposition National Party wins parliamentary elections tomorrow.

National leader Don Brash, a 64-year-old economist and former central bank governor, has said that if he wins power, he would be prepared to dismantle New Zealand’s 20-year-old nuclear-free laws to help pave the way for a free trade deal with the US – although he would first seek approval for the move in a referendum.

The nuclear laws have strained relations between Washington and Wellington since they were enacted in 1985, leading to New Zealand being frozen out of a defence treaty with the US and Australia.

Two-term Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark says she is appalled at the prospect of Brash scrapping them.

“We can take pride … in being nuclear free,” Clark said in a final recorded television address to the nation today, “and in having the strength and independence not to send our young people off to fight in unjust wars.”

The comments were a clear reference to her vocal opposition to US President George Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.

Clark, who spent today rushing to eight campaign rallies at shopping centres and factories in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, refused to send troops to take part in the invasion without UN approval, but later dispatched army engineers to help rebuild the shattered country and Afghanistan.

Political analysts and pollsters who have charted erratic swings in support for both Labour and National throughout the election campaign consider the vote for parliament’s 120 seats too close to call.

After tomorrow’s vote, both Clark and Brash likely will try to negotiate with minor parties to stitch together a workable coalition – and that process could take days or even weeks.

Since coming to power in 1999, Clark has presided over a booming economy helped by strong prices for agricultural exports and a surge in tourism sparked by the blockbuster Lord of the Rings movie trilogy that showcased the country’s spectacular scenery.

Unemployment is at a 30-year low of 3.7% and the budget has grown strongly each year Clark has been in office. Her message today to the estimated 12% of the country’s 2.83 million voters who were still undecided was: Don’t change a good thing.

“I think it’s absolutely critical that we get a good vote for Labour tomorrow because these things don’t happen by accident,” Clark said. “They happen because you’ve got a good strong government that’s pursued policies of growth and jobs and that’s lifted household incomes across New Zealand.”

But Brash, who led New Zealand’s central bank for 15 years before entering politics, accuses Labour of not capitalising on the favourable economic conditions. He has vowed to slash taxes in a move he says will reward New Zealanders for their work and stimulate the economy.

The policy that has drawn the most fire for Brash is his pledge to cut welfare and social programmes aimed exclusively at the country’s indigenous Maori and abolish seven seats set aside for them in parliament – a raft of privileges he branded “state-sponsored separatism.”

“For us having a single standard of citizenship for all New Zealanders irrespective of race remains a very important objective indeed,” Brash said in one of his appearances today. “It’s not one we could easily tamper with. In fact, we can’t tamper with it at all.”

Maori, a minority of 530,000, are among the poorest, least-educated and worst-housed citizens in this nation of four million, and make up half the prison population.

A newly formed Maori Party is expected to win a handful of seats and could help Clark stay in her post by agreeing to support her party in parliament.

Peter Love of the Te Atiawa tribe of about 25,000 people said that if Brash wins power, “we could see a public protestation level never seen before.”