Carter Chris: Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Carter Chris: Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 July 2009. Volume:656;Page:5196. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 Kia ora koutou katoa. As Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson it is my pleasure to rise in support of the Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill. It is rare indeed in this House to have consensus from all political parties over a piece of legislation. The viewers and listeners of Parliament today will have heard representatives from all political parties rising to support this legislation. That is a statement about New Zealand and how New Zealanders across the political spectrum feel about the impact of these perfidious weapons on people. 
Somebody just tuning into Parliament TV would wonder why in the midst of an economic recession and the many great affairs of State that a country a faces all of New Zealand’s politicians are rising regardless of their political party to support this bill and are taking every one of the speaking spots available. The reason is that New Zealanders care passionately about peace and about the protection and safety of people particularly children. We have a long tradition of being a country that has a moral foreign policy. In this particular area of the banning of cluster munitions New Zealand has a proud record. 
Like my friend Phil Twyford from the Labour Party who was speaking a few minutes ago I want to acknowledge some people in this Parliament and people who have recently been here who have played a very important role in the passage of this legislation and this international agreement. First of all I acknowledge Labour Party leader Phil Goff who as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade was a very active campaigner for international action on cluster munitions. I particularly want to acknowledge my old friend and now departed colleague Marian Hobbs the former member for Wellington Central. The Hon Marian Hobbs was a passionate advocate for this issue. She spoke about it often in this House and she played a very important role in the conference that was held in February last year which several speakers have made reference to. That conference was attended by representatives of over 100 countries and it had over 500 delegates. It was very important in terms of setting the scene for the Oslo conference which led to the establishment of this international agreement. 
I will take a few minutes to read a motion that Marian Hobbs put to this House on 8 November 2006. She moved that the House “acknowledge the unacceptable toll on civilian lives caused by cluster munitions and the lasting legacy of these weapons in postwar situations;”. Phil Twyford who spoke a short while ago read an account of an individual who had suffered personal loss through these weapons. Marian Hobbs also moved that the House “denounce the indiscriminate use of cluster munitions and their use in areas where civilians are likely to suffer disproportionate casualties and call upon the international community to set binding standards of reliability to decrease the persistent threat to civilians caused by unexploded bomblets;”. She also moved that the House “confirm that New Zealand does not currently maintain stocks of cluster munitions has no intention to do so …”. Sadly that is not the case internationally. As Mary Wareham who is sitting up in the gallery and who has been a passionate advocate and crusader for this issue would no doubt be able to tell us there are 56 nations in the world at the moment that stockpile these weapons and another 33 that produce them. 
What do these weapons do? A number of speakers including Te Ururoa Flavell have talked about the effects of these bomblets. The bomblets do three different things. The steel fragments which are at the core of the small bombs target people and can kill them at up to 152 metres from the impact. The shaped charge inside the small bomb fires a molten slug that can penetrate 5 inches or 13 centimetres of steel. Members can imagine what that does to the body of an individual. Finally the other part of the bomb a zircon wafer has an incendiary function that spreads little burning particles which not only burn trucks and vehicles but do terrible things to people’s bodies. 
These weapons with their three different destructive mechanisms are incredibly dangerous. They have quite a history. They were first used towards the end of World War II when the fishing port of Grimsby in Yorkshire was bombed by the German Luftwaffe with the first cluster bombs ever used. Interestingly enough those first cluster bombs were a forerunner of the issues and dangers we face with these munitions. They caused chaos for weeks after the bombing raid. Some 76 people had been killed in the bombing raid but more were killed clearing the new German-designed cluster bombs from the streets and buildings of Grimsby. It was a sign of things to come. 
As Mr Twyford talked about in his presentation cluster bombs have been used in a lot of places since the bombing of Grimsby in the 1940s. The Viet Nam War was when the cluster munitions were used in absolutely great quantities and new and more effective designs—looking at it from a bomber’s view—were developed. Laos is a really interesting country to look at to see the long-term effects of these bombs. Laos was probably bombed as part of the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail—the Assistant Speaker Rick Barker and I well remember protesting about that bombing in our youth. Some 80 million bomblets were dropped on Laos to try to stop the flow of supplies reaching South Viet Nam from North Viet Nam. 
Today some 40 years later some of those unexploded bombs are still going off and killing people in Laos. That is the great danger of these munitions. They do not cause just mayhem and havoc when they are first used; they have an insidious legacy. For example 40 years later in Laos the bomblets are still going off periodically as children go to look at a shiny object that a monsoon has revealed in the muddy rice fields or that has been washed up on the river bank. Of those young people and people who do not know what these bombs represent—and I imagine many Laotians do—there will always be some who will be attracted to this. These bombs are still going off still killing people still blowing up limbs and crippling and blinding people. 
The Gulf War the war in Kosovo the Russian use of these weapons in Chechnya the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia the war in Afghanistan Lebanon—in all of those conflicts cluster bombs and cluster munitions have been used with a lasting legacy of death destruction and chaos. 
The international community is to be absolutely commended for showing initiative in this area. New Zealand is to be commended. We are a country with a proud nuclear-free heritage. We have held our heads high internationally. We have played a responsible role in many international conflicts and in the great issues of peace disarmament and being nuclear-free. These are all things that New Zealand can be proud of. We are a small country of just over 4 million people. We are in many ways the most remote land from the world’s great land masses of Eurasia North America and South America and Africa. But because of the tradition this country has held for over 100 years in terms of having a population and a society that really cares about issues that affect all of mankind—all of humanity—this legislation and the leading role that our country has played in its development is something that all Kiwis can be very proud of. 
If we could only reach a consensus on a carbon trading system we could show leadership on climate change as well. I will just finish my speech today by making an appeal to all parties in this House. This issue is an important one in terms of its impact on people. Nothing could be more important for all of humanity on our planet than global climate change. Let us see whether we can reach a consensus on that as well.