Rainbow Warrior bombing 40th anniversary: Advocates warn of expanding nuclearism in Pacific

RNZ News

09-07-2025

The Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, in July 1985.
Photo:
Greenpeace / John Miller
As Thursday marks 40 years since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, anti-nuclear advocates warn the Pacific region is facing expanding nuclearism through developments like the AUKUS pact.
On 10 July 1985,
French agents bombed the Greenpeace protest ship
while it was moored at Marsden Wharf in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Crew member and photographer Fernando Pereira was killed. At the time, the ship was preparing to confront French nuclear testing in French Polynesia's Moruroa atoll.
Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, one of Aotearoa's leading anti-nuclear advocates in the1980s, was on board the Rainbow Warrior a day before it was bombed.
"Ngāti Whātua [and] Joe Hawke invited my mother-in-law and myself to go on board to welcome the Rainbow Warrior into the harbour in Tāmaki.
"They took us around and showed us and I can remember thinking: 'Wow, these fellas have got automatic washing machines and … dryers on their on their boat'."
The next day, while driving up north, Halkyard-Harawira heard news of the overnight bombing.
"We were just stunned really.
"It really was a statement about the impact that Greenpeace had on shaming France over the nuclear testing in the Pacific."
Listen:
The attack thrust the region's Nuclear-Free and Independent movement into headlines around the world. It also proved pivotal for Halkyard-Harawira and other advocates in Aotearoa because it turned public sentiment against nuclear regimes, particularly those of the US and France which were testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific.
"I think that the best thing was that the New Zealand government exposed it ... [because] you know, that was an international terrorist attack on Aotearoa.
"And I think the really good thing was the stamina of Greenpeace and other activists to get back up and carry on."
Two years later, New Zealand cemented its nuclear-free stance through the 1987 Nuclear-Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act.
The policy was implemented against the wishes of the US and the UK, which were both nuclear weapon states.
Now, these countries, alongside Australia, have formed the AUKUS security pact. The pact was set up in 2021 to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. Currently, the New Zealand government is
considering whether to participate
in "pillar two" of the pact. It has said this aspect of the pact is an
"advanced technology-sharing partnership"
that has nothing to do with nuclear weapons.
Pacific historian Marco de Jong from AUT's law school said AUKUS - pillar one and two - was a prime example of developments that undermined Aotearoa and the wider region's nuclear-free stance.
"There's a question as to the extent in which the two pillars can be disentangled. And certainly we see AUKUS set a number of nuclear-proliferation precedents - the first by which Australia, a non-nuclear weapon state, is set to receive highly-enriched uranium.
"Beyond … pillar one and two, the joint-interoperability implications of the de-facto stationing and more permanent rotation of US and UK nuclear-capable assets [bomber planes] through the north and west of Australia has implications for the Treaty of Rarotonga," de Jong said.
The 1985 Treaty of Rarotonga established the South Pacific as a nuclear-free zone. Thirteen Pacific nations signed it, including Australia and New Zealand.
De Jong and Greenpeace Aotearoa said New Zealand's interest in pillar two of AUKUS went against the spirit of the Treaty. Specifically, de Jong said it added to a "new nuclearism" facing the region.
"We should be clear that nuclear powers have exposed affected communities in places like Australia, Kiribati, Māo'hi Nui [French Polynesia], the Marshall Islands to
the harmful effects of ionising radiation
.
"Now, a new generation has to contend with what I would term a new nuclearism in the Pacific.
"We're confronted by emergent threats like the Fukushima discharge and AUKUS, and they really risk compounding unaddressed legacies of nuclear harm."
Russel Norman, executive director of Greenpeace Aotearoa, said New Zealand's participation in AUKUS, even under pillar two, was incompatible with being nuclear-free.
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman.
Photo:
Greenpeace
"At its heart are nuclear-propelled submarines with cruise missiles on board that can be nuclear-armed ... and for the New Zealand government to sign up to any part of that, I think, is certainly in breach with the spirit of nuclear-free New Zealand, if not a technical breach," Norman said.
A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters disagreed. He said in a statement that both pillars of AUKUS had nothing to do with nuclear weapons.
"AUKUS pillar two is an advanced technology-sharing partnership. It is not an offensive defence agreement or treaty.
"AUKUS pillar one, involving the UK, US and Australia … relates to nuclear-powered submarines, not precluded by the Treaty of Rarotonga."
The spokesman also highlighted two "pre-conditions" for New Zealand's participation in pillar two of AUKUS.
"First, New Zealand would have to be invited.
"Second, the New Zealand government would then have to weigh up the costs of pillar two and decide whether participating in AUKUS pillar two is consistent with, and advances, our national interests."
A dawn service was being held by Greenpeace in Auckland on Thursday to commemorate the Rainbow Warrior bombing.
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