UN General Assembly
1989

The South Pacific will be vigorously pursuing this issue bilaterally, regionally and globally. We will be proceeding in a dispassionate, rational and reasonable way. But those who engage in this ecologically irresponsible activity should be in no doubt that the techniques they use are unacceptable wherever they are used. New Zealand looks to the United Nations to support the Tarawa Declaration. Resolutions in the United Nations system to combat drift-netting are inevitable if these practices are not phased out quickly. New Zealand, in close co-operation with the South Pacific countries and other Members of the United Nations who have declared their abhorrence of the new drift-net technology, will be pursuing this issue within the United Nations system. At the present session opportunities exist under agenda items before several Committees of this Assembly.