Clark condemns Greens' anti-Mugabe bill

Helen Clark

New Zealand will not resort to "Mugabe style" measures to prevent the Black Caps touring Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.

In a bid to stop the August tour going ahead the Greens have drafted a bill that would make the tour illegal.

But Miss Clark said today that adopting such a measure was unacceptable as it would curtail New Zealander's human rights.

"Our concern would be, if we in New Zealand stooped to Mugabe style measures then that really isn't a very satisfactory outcome," Miss Clark told TV One's Breakfast show.

"We have a bill of rights that says that New Zealanders are free to leave the country and one is just reluctant to be imposing restrictions on the freedoms of Kiwis to travel."

National and United Future have also said they will oppose the bill, while the Progressives and NZ First say they need time to consider it.

Miss Clark said cross-party talks on the issue tonight would be a chance to talk about it. Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff announced the talks last week.

Miss Clark said that would be a chance to brief other parties about advice the Government had received as to what was possible and what the Government had done so far.

She said Mr Goff had met with Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer at the weekend.

As well as agreeing to make a joint approach to the ICC the pair had agreed to urge a meeting of G8 countries in Britain this week to address the Zimbabwe crisis.

Awareness of the Zimbabwe issue was beginning to filter through at an international level.

"The appreciation that Zimbabwe is in deep crisis is running very very high. One hopes that level of appreciation will reach the International Cricket Council."

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has been under intense pressure to pull out of next month's tour of Zimbabwe because of human rights abuses under President Robert Mugabe's regime -- including the bulldozing of slums which has left thousands homeless.

Greens co-leader Rod Donald's bill would make it illegal for sporting groups to tour Zimbabwe and included penalties of a $50,000 fine and loss of Government funding for organisations that refused to comply.

Mr Goff said he would look at the bill in good faith, but there were several problems with the bill.

As well as the human rights implications he wondered how effective the bill would be if teams could go to Zimbabwe and simply call themselves by a different name.

Another problem was there were only three sitting days of Parliament before the tour started so the bill would not go to a select committee or have the proper scrutiny and debate it would need.

Mr Goff said there was a widespread desire for a multi-party approach to Zimbabwe and the bill would not get that support.

National leader Don Brash said yesterday the bill was a political stunt.

NZC chief executive Martin Sneddon told NZPA last night he had no comment to make until he had a chance to consider the bill.

Mr Donald said today that those opposing the bill had misrepresented it.

He said the bill did not curb New Zealanders' rights to travel, it merely prevented sporting teams playing under the New Zealand flag with countries with "particularly horrific human rights records".

At the same time it would be strong enough to trigger the escape route in NZC's contract with the ICC, allowing them to avoid the minimum $2.8 million fine they would face.

Mr Donald said he was heartened the Government had not dismissed the bill out of hand and hoped talks with other parties would help their understanding of the bill.

- NZPA