MP draws flak for Anzac speech

By DITA DE BONI and ANGELA GREGORY

National Party leader Bill English has labelled as disgraceful a speech by one of his long-serving MPs, Clem Simich, to Panmure veterans at an Anzac Day service.

Mr Simich outraged the veterans when he attacked New Zealand's anti-nuclear legislation.

His speech was met by cries of "enough", and was at one stage drowned out by interjectors.

The service, at the Panmure Community Hall, was led by the Mt Wellington-Panmure Returned Services Association, the club that suffered a brutal robbery last December in which three people were killed and a woman critically injured.

Mr English was last night horrified by Mr Simich's "total" lack of tact. "I think it was disgraceful he chose today, in that RSA, to make such a political speech."

Mr English said not only was Mr Simich's position not in line with his party's policy, but he had inflicted his views on a group that had gone through a significant trauma.

He planned to make his displeasure known to Mr Simich.

And he would telephone the RSA president to apologise.

The National Party leader said he visited the club after the triple murders and found the members to be decent people who deserved respect.

Mr English later called the Herald to say that, having spoken to people at the event, he felt the speech was "inappropriate" rather than disgraceful.

In his speech, Mr Simich called Anzac Day the "most important day in my calendar" and detailed relatives who had taken part in war efforts.

He said the decision by then-Prime Minister David Lange to ban nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed vessels, a ban legislated in 1987, was a sad day for him.

"We took an action that no free-world ally would accept ... It was intolerable then and it still is now," he told the increasingly restive crowd, referring to the US suspension of defence commitments to New Zealand under the ANZUS Treaty after the Government refused entry to the USS Buchanan in 1985.

Mr Simich went on to say the National Government had a "golden opportunity" to right the situation.

"Enough, Mr Simich!" some yelled. Eventually, an appeal for calm was made by club padre Roger Hey, and Mr Simich resumed his speech, finishing to weak applause.

Afterwards, Mr Simich told the Herald that although the speech was not intended to be political, "one needs to speak out - the mistake we made was absolutely huge and we are fooling only ourselves".

He conceded that it "may have been an inappropriate occasion".

Later in the day, he said he was very sorry if he had upset anyone.

But he also said he had nothing to apologise for, as he was the speaker and thought his speech was very good.

Mr Simich said that, as the local MP, he was well aware of what the club members had gone through since the murders, and had paid his respects to the victims in his speech.

The MP has held the Tamaki electorate seat since 1992, and won with a margin of almost 5000 votes in 1999.

Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA president Alan Eastwood said only: "He was an invited guest and made his opinions known, and I've got nothing more to say about it."

RSA member Men Van Bohee, who fought for the Dutch and in tanks during the war, said he was outraged, and there was no need for electioneering on Anzac Day.