Locke Keith: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLocke Keith: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 10 October 2007. Volume:642;Page:12215. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.KEITH LOCKE (Green) to thePrime Minister: Will New Zealand be following the example of the European Union and the United States by imposing sanctions on either imports from Burma or investment in Burma or freezing any assets of members of the Burmese regime held in New Zealand?Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister): I am advised that New Zealand has not traditionally imposed economic sanctions other than those agreed to by the Security Council. Currently we do not have a legislative basis for imposing sanctions unilaterally. Both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for advice on whether it might be useful for New Zealand to have umbrella legislation that would enable us to impose financial or other sanctions in the future. At present we have to legislate case by case. We would support Myanmar being put on the Security Council agenda and would of course support and fully implement any sanctions agreed to by the Security Council.Keith Locke: Is not waiting for the United Nations to act in practice an excuse for inaction in that China is likely to veto any strong UN action including sanctions as it has in the past; and would it not be embarrassing if we keep importing for example teak furniture from Burma that is produced under virtually slave labour conditions when other nations in the European Union and America have implemented sanctions?Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: The point the member makes is exactly the reason why New Zealand from the very beginning of the United Nations has opposed the veto. That continues to be our position because it can stand in the way of something that the vast bulk of countries actually think would be desirable. But as I said to the member we are currently looking at whether we can improve the legislative basis for New Zealand to take action in future around sanctions. It is also worth pointing out that New Zealand has acted by postponing indefinitely the ASEAN - New Zealand dialogue meeting which was due to take place here in December co-chaired by Myanmar. We decided that would be completely inappropriate.Keith Locke: Will the Government be informing the New Zealand Superannuation Fund about the severe repression in Burma so that it can review its investments in Total and in Chevron Oil Co. companies that are major financial props for the Burmese regime; if not why not?Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: Certainly Total has significant investments there although I understand that the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation have shares in Total that represent about 0.1 percent of the total fund. Total will undoubtedly come under pressure particularly in Western Europe to withdraw its investments. But it is worth pointing out that when another Western company pulled out of the Myanmar oil industry in recent years the vacuum it left was immediately filled by Asian companies. That reinforces my point which is that in order for sanctions to be effective they really do need to be multilateral and imposed at the Security Council level.Keith Locke: Is it not true however that our sanctions because we are a small nation are symbolic but important none the less and that even though the superannuation fund’s investment in Total may be only $18 million it is still $18 million that actually helps the regime; and should we not respond to the call fromAung SanSuuKyi and the democracy movement to introduce sanctions or at least to remove investments that affect the ordinary people in Burma today?Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: I repeat that traditionally the New Zealand view has been that sanctions need to be multilateral in order to be effective and that the evidence to date is that where Western companies have pulled out Asian companies have simplyfilled the void and have done so very happily. So I think we need a smarter approach than one of just some countries acting while others cream the rewards.