Roche Denise: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: General Debate[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4495. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I just want to start my speech in the general debate by acknowledging the passing of economist and former secretary of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Peter Conway. It was his funeral this morning and I have just come back from it. Peter was a kind loving and gentle man. He devoted his life to social justice. I think that he would have actually appreciated and approved of the bill that I launched today. It is designed to amend the Immigration Act to increase the refugee quota to 1000 refugees plus or minus 5 percent. This bill has been lodged and although I recognise that the refugee quota can be raised currently by regulation that requires the will of the Government and at this stage that will is missing. A member’s bill is the only means I have to attempt to compel the Government into taking action on refugee quotas.A former Prime Minister of this country with razor sharp wit David Lange once said that New Zealand was a country of insurmountable opportunity—basically a place where many of us have the opportunity to thrive. Interestingly David Lange was the Prime Minister the last time the refugee quota was raised and that was in 1987—28 years ago. Since then we have offered that opportunity to thrive to only 750 refugees per year despite the fact that in 28 years our population has increased by roughly 40 percent. Basically over that period we have nearly halved the number of refugees we take on a per capita basis. We take only 750 refugees from a total of over 50 million refugees worldwide and that is the largest number since the end of the Second World War. Yes it is a big problem. But yes we can do our fair share to support these people who have been displaced who have endured war who have endured civil disruption and who have actually faced death many times over. These are the people who are desperately seeking a safe haven a place to live—not just a refugee camp which is a place to survive but a place to live and a place simply to thrive.There are people who would give the world to settle here in New Zealand and many of them actually do give everything they have. By taking so few refugees we are failing in our obligations as humanitarian global citizens. We are 88th in the world in terms of refugees per capita. Even Australia takes roughly five times more per capita then we do. I do not think that we should think this is generous of Australia given its appalling treatment of asylum seekers in camps in Nauru and its appalling inhumane and illegal treatment of people arriving by boat seeking asylum and basically paying off the people smugglers. Before we think that Australia is generous by taking five times our refugee quota we should look to the Scandinavian countries which take 20 times more than we do and that is on a per capita basis.Increasing the quota will cost—of course it will. Based on the information that I have received from the Minister’s office it would be about $19.2 million over 3 years but this is a tiny fraction of the Government’s budget. When we think about how much we are spending on a referendum on a flag I think we have actually got our priorities wrong. More and more New Zealanders want us to raise the quota. Organisations like Amnesty International the Red Cross and the Refugee Council want us to double it. Actually even Newstalk ZB with its poll showed that the majority of New Zealanders who answered the poll want to see the quota raised. This Government is out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders who want to take a compassionate approach to ensuring that refugees can come to New Zealand. We can increase the quota. It is a life and death situation for most of them and we have it in our hands to make life better for them.