Mark Ron: Ministerial Statements — Iraq—New Zealand Assistance 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mark Ron: Ministerial Statements — Iraq—New Zealand Assistance 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6042. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to welcome the Government’s announcement that it will deploy personnel into Iraq and Afghanistan to assist with the efforts in re-establishing peace and security and towards the development and well-being of the peoples of those two nations. It is said that a week is a long time in politics. I would like to suggest that a week may prove to be a lifetime in trade negotiations. Whilst we welcome these announcements—and we have said on many occasions that we concurred with the position that the Government had taken with regard to the desirability of having the United Nations involved in any action in Iraq in terms of looking for weapons of mass destruction and of regime-change activities—we say the comments that were passed after the war was under way and difficulties became apparent were totally unnecessary. There will be another time in which we will have those debates further and judgment will be passed for many years to come on the wisdom of those comments but they have clearly harmed New Zealand’s position with its friends and allies. 
This move will go in part some way towards at least reminding our friends and allies that we still exist and that we are still able to offer a valuable contribution. But this contribution and any gains that we get from it as a nation will be on the backs of the men and women of our Defence Force who show a far higher degree of professionalism than I have observed around the hustings here in the last month or so. I want to reflect on some comments that were made after the unfortunate accident that killed Major John McNutt of the Special Air Services in Kuwait. The Prime Minister herself made a comment that she did not believe that New Zealand’s foreign affairs or foreign relations were built on the activities the assistance the viability or the support of the SAS. Quite clearly the Prime Minister has had a huge change of heart since those days and she is now leaning very heavily on the SAS as a foreign affairs tool because she has found since then that the SAS is a very very effective foreign affairs tool and again one that is effective because of the professionalism and the expertise of the men and women who deploy and support those operations. 
On behalf of New Zealand First I want to say—and I want the Government to reflect on this—that when the Government tells the nation that it has no plans to send people into action it needs to reflect on the impact of those words on the personnel who are already training and preparing to go and who have already been told they are to go into action. The response to that from within the ranks is that someone is telling porkies or not exactly telling the truth or to ask if that were the truth why they are preparing and discussing the issue and why moves are being made to ensure that their deployment is effective swift and professional. 
New Zealand First tells those personnel that we look forward to their return home and look forward as a nation to enjoying the fruits of their work and their professionalism. We know that they will perform absolutely impeccably in the Middle East as they have always done in the various peacekeeping missions be they in Israel Lebanon Kosovo or wherever. We are absolutely dependent on them to do their duty impartially and with humanity. 
I note once again that larger numbers of logistics personnel are going out—engineers and people skilled in planning and executing—and that the success of our forces’ ability to deliver humanitarian aid and support to the people will depend upon those personnel and their skills. 
I say to the Government: thank you well done. However the rewards of the Government and the nation lie from here on in the hands of the men and women we deploy and accordingly we should support them 100 percent.