McCully Murray: Ministerial Statements — Islamic State Conflict—Government ResponseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcCully Murray: Ministerial Statements — Islamic State Conflict—Government Response[Sitting date: 05 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:625. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MURRAY McCULLY (Minister of Foreign Affairs):About 2 weeks ago from today I received a message at about 5 o’clock in the morning to tell me about the attack by a gunman in the House of Parliament in Canada. A short time later I rang our High Commissioner Simon Tucker who was in the New Zealand High Commission about two blocks from the Canadian Parliament which was part of the lockdown that was in place at that time. When I asked him about the scene there he said to me: “Well just imagine this was happening in the New Zealand Parliament because the layout is about the same.” He said it was like someone had taken out a guard at the Supreme Court—just down that way—hijacked a car to the front steps of Parliament and with a gun burst in the front door. He said that was pretty much the scene that was taking place in Canada that day. The air of disbelief that was present in Canada on that day was about the same as the air of disbelief you would expect if it had happened in this country.Members do not need me to tell them that the threat that we are here to discuss today is a new and very dangerous one for countries like ours. Nor should I need to remind members that the individual responsible for that act in Canada was a person who had been newly radicalised and who had been denied the opportunity to commit jihad in the Middle East and had instead turned his mind to steps of violence that could be undertaken where he was.The advent of a well-resourced globally focused internet-savvy terrorist group skilled at preying on the vulnerabilities of the disturbed and disenfranchised is a new and very dangerous phenomenon for countries like ours. As we have heard today we now live in a country where there are individuals who have access to these websites—no doubt many of them are disturbed and disenfranchised—who have become radicalised and have planned to go to the Middle East and commit acts of violence there. Some have gone as the Prime Minister has told us today to Syria. We know that there are others who have been denied the opportunity to go to the Middle East and who remain here. No doubt some of them like that person in Canada are reflecting on acts of violence that can be undertaken here instead of those they had intended to undertake in the Middle East.I want to support the words of the Hon Annette King in relation to the UN Security Council resolution on foreign fighters. In fact I attended the beginning of that debate in New York and I believe that we should listen carefully to what was said there and heed the instructions from the Security Council. It is important that New Zealand plays its part by identifying the individuals who might export violence from here to places where there is already rather too much of it preventing them from going and then turning our minds to how we can make New Zealanders safe in a situation where those people will then turn their minds to acts of violence in this country. The reminder we have seen in Canada is one that we should heed in this country. I accept what Mr David Shearer said to the Parliament. We should not over-egg the situation. We do not need to try to read more into it than exists. But we do need to understand that there is a challenge here for our society to deal with. We need to be careful that we confront it in a way that does not make it worse by making those who are targeted who are identified feel more marginalised and therefore more a prospect of being radicalised.I want to commend the balanced way in which most parties have received the address from the Prime Minister today and the way in which other parties have undertaken to consider constructively the recommendations that have been made. There are always challenges when trying to find the right balance between the responsibility to respect human rights and civil liberties on the one hand and the need to protect the public on the other. Finding that balance can only benefit from the scrutiny of members of Parliament in the select committee and on the floor of the House.I want to pick up the sentiment that has been raised by some members about the need for New Zealand to do more on the humanitarian front. As the Prime Minister has told us today we have committed about $13.5 million—add to that another $1 million today—to a range of initiatives to try to alleviate the suffering of those who have been displaced and disadvantaged in the Middle East. We have worked and will continue to work with a range of organisations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Unicef the Red Cross the World Food Programme and UN relief works agencies as well as a range of NGOs. Anyone who has been to any of the refugee camps as I have will know the scale of the challenge that confronts the people there. We need to do our part on an ongoing basis.In Turkey we have taken a rather different approach. We have engaged in bilateral programmes with the Government of Turkey to construct schools in the refugee camps of that country. Increasingly we need to look for bilateral options to work with countries facing this challenge. The region I mention particularly is Jordan the smallest of those countries with I think a million and a half refugees now to contend with. This is a country that is at risk of being truly swamped by the challenge that now confronts it.I heard the words of the co-leader of the Green Party suggesting that there was no role for military action in relation to Iraq. I simply say to her that those words will give no comfort to the people in towns like Kobani or any of the other towns across Iraq where we have seen cold-blooded killers and people engaged in torture engaged in the destruction of a very large piece of territory across Iraq and Syria. Once there is a space created through military action—and I believe that the actions that have been undertaken by other countries in that respect do need to be seen in a positive light given the risk confronting some of the communities there—there will be a need to look at areas for capacity-building and support in Iraq in particular. We need to remind ourselves that the seeds of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were sown when we saw the Maliki Government in Iraq turn on too many of its own people showing a lack of respect for their human rights and engaging in acts—Hon Phil Goff: Sown in 2003.Hon MURRAY McCULLY: Well there is a long history there as Mr Goff reminds us and I say simply that we need to be ready to do some work in the capacity-building area. I agree with what Mr Shearer said about the need to look at law and justice agencies and areas of that sort once we do see the opportunity to move beyond the current conflict.I just want finally to recognise the words of those who have referred to New Zealand’s role on the UN Security Council from 1 January 2015. It is not until 1 January that we take up the new seat on the UN Security Council but like others I was delighted to see three-quarters of the countries in the world support New Zealand for a seat on the council. But with that support goes a very great sense of responsibility.If you look at the key conflicts in the Middle East the UN Security Council has been a bystander for far too many years. If you look at what happened in Syria in recent times the UN Security Council was a bystander by reason of the veto used by more than one of the permanent members of the council. As we have seen in relation to the Iran nuclear file the UN Security Council has very largely been a bystander on that issue as we have seen the P5+1 process take place outside the UN environment. And of course in relation to the Middle East peace process as a whole we have seen a very good resolution passed I think some 47 years ago but no real action to breathe life into that resolution to create a longstanding basis for peace in the Middle East.So I say to members of the House taking the longer-term view that New Zealand as a new member of the UN Security Council must commit itself to working with other countries to create a Security Council environment where these challenges are no longer ignored and where the big countries in the world confront their responsibilities.