Twyford Phil: Depleted Uranium (Prohibition) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Twyford Phil: Depleted Uranium (Prohibition) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3469. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 In 1995 I was working for Oxfam and at the time there was an international conference on the international convention on inhumane weapons. The National Prime Minister of the time was Jim Bolger and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade was Don McKinnon. I worked with a range of Opposition party leaders including Peter Dunne Winston Peters and Helen Clark and together those Opposition leaders went to Mr Bolger the Prime Minister and said that the New Zealand Government’s position needed to change that New Zealand should support a ban on landmines and that we should change our position. At that time New Zealand’s position was to not support a global ban on landmines. 
Mr Bolger and Mr McKinnon were a Prime Minister and a Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the day who I would say are very different in character and temperament from the current crop of National MPs whom we see on the other side of the House because they took principled positions. They were prepared to listen. They were prepared to summon political courage and to do the right thing. After that dialogue happened they adopted the position to ban landmines. New Zealand became one of the first countries in the world to support a global ban on landmines. I think that the performance we have seen from the National Party members in this debate is an absolute indictment of the courage the ethics and the intellectual rigour that we would hope members would bring to this House. 
I want to thank Robert Green and the Depleted Uranium Education Team who are a New Zealand campaign group on this issue and who inspired this bill. I want to thank Peace Movement Aotearoa the Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility and the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons which is doing a lot of good work on this issue on the international stage. 
Hon Annette King 
: What about Graham Kelly? 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: I want to remember Graham Kelly a former member of this House who is with us tonight. He is a tireless campaigner and an advocate on these issues. 
Finally I want to urge the members of this House to think seriously about the precautionary principle in relation to depleted uranium weapons. It was really disappointing to hear one National member after another stand up in this House and parrot the phrase “there is no conclusive evidence” as if they had been completely deaf to the statements that had preceded their speeches about the fact that numerous international agencies have said that there is a potential link between depleted uranium weapons and the risks to health and the environment and the argument that there is sufficient concern and evidence to warrant a ban based on a precautionary principle until conclusive epidemiological studies are done. The very nature of depleted uranium weapons—the fact that they affect civilians and combatants and communities in war—makes those definitive scientific studies almost impossible to carry out. That is the basis of this argument and I am sorry to say that members on that side of the House completely missed it the first time round. 
It was incredible to hear the chair of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee John Hayes stand up and raise as one of his chief objections to the Depleted Uranium (Prohibition) Bill the fact that our old Skyhawks had depleted uranium ballast. The objection about depleted uranium weapons is not proximity to the material itself; it is that when the weapons explode and ignite they disperse radioactive and chemically toxic dust which is incredibly harmful to human health. After being on a select committee that considered this issue for about 3 years for the chair of the committee to come to this House tonight and raise the question of the Skyhawks’ ballast absolutely beggars belief. 
He also raised the point that this bill would make criminals out of New Zealand service personnel serving overseas. Does he not know that the landmines ban and the cluster munitions ban have interoperability provisions in those Acts that allow New Zealand defence personnel to serve and fight alongside allied personnel whose countries are not signatories to those bans on cluster munitions and landmines? It was absolutely ignorant and it was beneath that member to come to this House and raise those objections. 
The member Tau Henare raised a criticism that this bill was based on a cut and paste from the select committee report. If he went and read the nuclear-free legislation he would know that this bill is modelled closely on that nuclear-free legislation. 
I want to thank the New Zealand First and Greens members for their thoughtful responses on and support for this bill. I urge the House to vote for this bill and send it to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee.