frogblog

National’s position on the Zimbabwe cricket tour seems muddled and opportunistic. Yesterday afternoon, the party released a statement quoting Lockwood Smith and Murray McCully as saying:

A National Government will not be bound by decisions by Labour, over which there has been no consultation, to ban any Zimbabwe teams from visiting New Zealand. In order to avoid any inconsistencies, the wisest thing would be for Phil Goff to consult in advance of any such actions.

Then, I saw Don Brash on the TV news last night saying that he would personally support any moves to block Zimbabwe from touring. And, this morning, The Dominion Post is reporting that National is refusing to state a position on the issue till Labour consults it.

All of which I find rather odd. Why can’t National just take a clear stance on the issue or stay silent until it has one? Clearly, National is trying to strike a pose as the government-in-waiting, but in the process it comes across in the media as obtuse, muddled and bogged down in detail. Labour is saying, “No tour!” National is saying, “Umm, maybe there’ll be a tour, maybe there won’t, but we’re not telling you until Labour asks us nicely.”

Sure, it would be nice if Labour consulted National, but Mr Goff hasn’t even brought the issue up with Cabinet yet, let alone cast around for other parties’ support. Perhaps it’s time for National to get over itself and, for once, take a clear moral stand on a human rights issue.

In the meanwhile, all this meaningless posturing on National’s part is sending Robert Mugabe the message that we’re more interested in squabbling amongst ourselves than imposing sporting sanctions on his odious regime.

Meanwhile, the Herald’s editorial writers yesterday endorsed the Greens’ position on the Black Caps’ tour of Zimbabwe:

Government intervention … offers the way around the financial penalty facing New Zealand Cricket. International Cricket Council regulations stipulate that, among other reasons, a tour can be abandoned without penalty on the basis of “any action taken by a Government or public authority of any kind”.

Furthermore, the game’s governors stated last year that “it is the right of Governments to take actions, including the imposition of sporting sanctions, which they consider to be in their national interest”.

Clearly, ICC policy offers the basis for the Government and New Zealand Cricket to begin talks, and take legal advice, with a view to calling off the tour. In the end, it may well require an instruction from the Beehive. That is not an especially palatable prospect for the Government, given a looming election and the apparent tightness of the contest. It might, however, be surprised by the small number of feathers ruffled by such intervention.

Quite right. One thing I have never understood about Labour’s position on the tour is that there is no political downside to calling it off. There aren’t, as with the Springbok Tour in 1981, hundreds of thousands of ardent sports fans who’ll be annoyed if the Black Caps’ tour of Zimbabwe is called off. If anything, New Zealand cricket fans will feel pleased that their top players aren’t being put in danger and that they don’t have to sit through a string of boring, one-sided matches beamed on to their TV screens from Africa.

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