The government was tonight called on to take the lead in nuclear non-proliferation negotiations when parliament held a debate that coincided with the review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that is taking place in New York.
Labour MP Phil Twyford proposed a resolution which said New Zealand should work with other nations to support a United Nations five-point plan for nuclear disarmament.
"Now is not the time to rest on our anti-nuclear laurels. Now is the time to lead. We did it before and we can do it again," he said.
"We will have to stand up and be counted - and sometimes disagree with powerful friends."
Twyford said the Government should call for preparatory talks on a process leading to the Nuclear Weapons Convention.
National's Paul Hutchison said Disarmament Minister Georgina te Heuheu was leading New Zealand delegation at the New York conference and was heavily engaged in it.
He said New Zealand was one of the first nations to sign the NPT in 1968 and the present government proudly supported the vision of a nuclear-free world.
"We will be working for real commitments from all nuclear states," he said.
"We will be pressing for practical recommendations to advance the elimination of nuclear weapons."
The Green Party's Kennedy Graham said there was a difference between nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and the nuclear states had spent years building up their arsenals while at the same time preventing others from acquiring them.
"It would be possible for the two major powers to dismantle their arsenals in the time it took to build them up - about 10 years," he said.
Dr Graham said New Zealand governments had taken an ambivalent approach to disarmament at the United Nations.
"Let us start to vote consistently for a nuclear-free world."
Other parties supported the resolution and it was adopted without dissent.
