The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been signed by over 50 countries, including New Zealand. The treaty binds signatories to not “develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess, or stockpile nuclear weapons.” What are your thoughts on the treaty and New Zealand’s decision to sign it?
Young Nats — Lower North Island
The Young Nats agree with the principles of the treaty and support the National Government’s decision to sign.
— Sam Stead
Vic Labour
We’ll let former Prime Minister David Lange say it best — this quote is from the Oxford Union Debate in 1986, where he argued for the proposition that “Nuclear weapons are morally indefensible” against US televangelist Jerry Falwell:
“The character of the argument, sir, is something which I find regrettable. So I can say very simply that it is my conviction that there is no moral case for nuclear weapons. That the best defence which can be made of their existence and the threat of their use is, as we have heard tonight, that they are a necessary evil; an abhorrent means to a desirable end.
I hold that the character of nuclear weapons is such that their very existence corrupts the best of intentions; that the means in fact pervert the end. And I hold that their character is such that they have brought us to the greatest of all perversions: the belief that this evil is necessary — as it has been stated tonight — when in fact it is not.”