Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Foreign Affairs): Well that 3 minutes and 25 seconds just was not quite long enough to cure incurable insomnia but it came close. This is a debate about the Estimates under the topic external sector and it is the first time that the Committee has formally debated the Estimates grouped under topics. The topics that are included for consideration in today's debate are of course defence the Defence Force itself foreign affairs and customs and then we have trade and Vote Official Development Assistance as well. In each of those there is a very good story to tell in New Zealand's favour.Particularly I want to refute and rebuke Rino Tirikatene the member who just spoke who suggested that somehow the plague of P in this country was entirely the responsibility of the Customs Service. It is not. Rather than blame the criminals who are out there deceiving the borders of this country day by day I think it is somewhat sad that the Labour Party simply says that it must be the good guys' fault that the bad guys are inflicting such damage on our society. So I hope that those who were getting a little persuaded by Mr Tirikatene's speech will just think about the hard work that those customs officers do. The border security responsibilities taken by them and by the Ministry for Primary Industries are seriously considered and are very well exercised. There will always unfortunately be criminals out there who find some other way to bring this evil product into the country but that does not mean there is any less vigilance or any less attention paid to the problem by those who are charged with protecting our borders and I support them strongly in their work.I just want to speak for a couple of moments if I could about New Zealand's official foreign aid budget. It is my intention to encourage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to start referring to this aspect of the Budget from this point on as development and humanitarian assistance because I think the term aid" particularly when it comes to the Pacific underestimates and undercalculates the capacity of those nations to make a difference for themselves in the long run. So "development" is a far better term to be used for the assistance that New Zealand gives to some of those economies.It is very interesting to note that if you look at something as simple as solar energy—which is obviously something that the Pacific can avail itself of quite freely—some years ago it was a difficult technology to install and to ensure that you had a sustainable supply. Technology has caught up with that now and over the last X number of years—I think around about 6 to 7 years—New Zealand has invested over $400 million in Pacific-based solar energy projects. The consequence of that has been an annual reduction in the cost of diesel that almost meets that on a parity basis. More importantly that $400 million has been partnered alongside the EU and various other donors in the Pacific to see a development project on a combined basis worth over $2 billion. So that of course has had a great effect in a positive sense on greenhouse emissions as well.So we do think that in the future we will be doing away with that word "aid" and focusing on development—Grant Robertson: You know it's not in here don't you? You know it's not called "aid" in the report?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: —and then recognising that there will be occasional tsunamis and hurricanes and cyclones etc. that do require humanitarian assistance. We will be there for that as well. The member over there points out that it is not called that in the Estimates. I did start by saying that "from this point on" I hoped that the department will start referring to it in that way and I think that is what happens when you get a change in a ministry and a change in direction. Thank you. Votes agreed to."