Pettis Jill: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Pettis Jill: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:22021] 
JILL PETTIS (Labour—Whanganui) 
: 
 I want to take a brief call because this is an important debate and it is not one that always attracts a great deal of attention—not that I hold myself up as an authority on foreign affairs issues but it is something I have a particular interest in. 
Shane Ardern 
: Thank God for that! 
JILL PETTIS 
: Unlike Mr Ardern who has never been much further than the farm gate nine members of my family have given service to this country and they have contributed in many ways. So because of that connection I do maintain an interest in foreign affairs issues. 
This issue has been very prominent in the media recently and more so because of the huge uncertainty coming from the Leader of the Opposition Don Brash about the position the National Party would have taken in regard to Iraq. This is not a light issue. This is about sending combat troops overseas. This is about sending our sons and our brothers. I am a parent. I have a 33-year-old son who would be old enough to be conscripted or required to go if the situation were exacerbated so we have a personal interest in these types of matters. 
What was glaringly obvious to this country was that Don Brash clearly cannot be relied upon in a time of crisis. Did anybody feel like saying: “Gosh this man makes me feel safe.”? Did anybody feel like we felt when Tony Blair came on the BBC after the first tragic bombings in London where he made us feel safe? Did we feel like that when Don Brash was on TV being interviewed and he was equivocating vacillating and could not give a straight answer if he tried? No we did not feel safe. We saw him on television and we thought: “God help us!” because he did not make us feel confident. 
It got worse because Mr Brash then went on television the next night and tried to clear the situation up but he did not make the position very clear at all. In fact it got worse. People became more embarrassed. It was one of those situations where one says: “Oh please God let him shut up—this is so embarrassing!”. It was like that. 
That man is not good in a crisis. In a time of international and national crisis we need to know that the person who is in charge gives us confidence and that that person knows what he or she is talking about and what he or she is doing. That person needs the ability to lead. That man could not lead a shadow and he made us feel very much afraid that there are some people who will be misguided—innocently in many instances—into thinking that that man could lead. That man could not lead a shadow. 
One of the other issues that is of huge concern to us is his vacillation in regard to our position in Iraq because it is not Mr Brash and the chaps over there who are going. They are not capable. But many young people in New Zealand would be capable of going. They are the young people who would be going. They are the young people I have to say—and I am not saying this too emotively—who would have been home in body bags by now because as sure as night follows day we would have suffered casualties. 
That was the man who would have sent people away without any certainty or confidence about why he was doing it. They are huge decisions to make; they are not decisions that one seeks information from one’s advisers on. They are issues where one builds up a lot of personal experience and knowledge before one sends mothers’ sons away to be shot. I do not have any confidence in Mr Brash’s position on Iraq at all. 
The National Party is making a big mistake about its position on New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy. It is very worrying and very dangerous. 
Vote agreed to.