No Public aid for the weapons trade

Press release: Peace Action Wellington

11 November, 2003





Peace Action Wellington hung massive banners at Te Papa today condemning the Government 

supported Defence Industry Association annual conference being held there. Activists 

disrupted the conference with noisemakers and chanted, ‘Arms Trade! Death Trade!’ to the 

conference participants.



‘The Government is wasting thousands of dollars of taxpayer money buying defence hardware 

that is never used. They are also actively supporting an industry which is in business to 

cause death and destruction.’ said Peace Action Wellington member John Anderson.



One banner on the waterfront exterior of the building read, ‘Arms Race at Our Place’ and 

featured a giant bloody fingerprint, Te Papa’s logo. The other banner, hung inside the 

large foyer of the museum read, ‘No public aid for weapons trade.’



‘It is bad enough that our Defence Force is supporting an immoral and illegal occupation 

in Iraq at a cost of some $12 million. The Government clearly thinks military spending is 

more important than desperately needed medical and education priorities.’



The Defence Industry Association is a partnership between some of the world’s largest 

multinational corporations, the NZ Defence Force, and Trade and Industry NZ.



Peace Action Wellington is calling on the Labour Party for an immediate end to state support 

for a weapons industry.



ENDS

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