Logie Jan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 12 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14540. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.JAN LOGIE (Green) to thePrime Minister: Will he oppose Sri Lanka chairing the Commonwealth following the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka as called for by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): The process for appointing Sri Lanka as the chair of the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting took place in Perth in 2011. All member States of the Commonwealth endorse Sri Lanka taking on this role. As host of this year’s meeting Sri Lanka automatically becomes the chair in office of the Commonwealth for the following 2 years. The process has been followed ever since the role of chair in office was established in 1999. The Commonwealth operates by consensus amongst its 53 members. I can tell the member that no process exists toinstall a different chair in office for 2014-15. There is no vote held. Sri Lanka is automatically the chair.Jan Logie: I seek leave to table a letter from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative to John Key dated 6 November asking for them to oppose the appointment.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Leave is sought to table that particular letter. Is there any objection? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Jan Logie: Why will his Government not put out a statement opposing Sri Lanka chairing the Commonwealth for the next 2 years in order to put pressure on the regime to change?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Because there is no process for changing the chair.Jan Logie: Does he accept that there are serious human rights abuses that have taken place and are still taking place in Sri Lanka?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: It is highly likely that there have been significant human rights abuses that certainly took place at the back end of the civil war and some of those could be ongoing. They will be matters I raise personally with the President when I meet with him later in the week.Jan Logie: Does he consider that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka is better or worse than in Fiji; and if his Government is willing to talk tough on Fiji why will it not take firm action on Sri Lanka?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The major issue that the Government has with the incumbent Government currently in Fiji is not one of human rights although those issues are raised from time to time. The issue is the way that the Fijian Government was installed and that was through a military coup. That is the reason why the Government takes action against the current Government of Fiji.Jan Logie: Is he concerned that having the Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa chairing the Commonwealth for the next 2 years might undermine international efforts to get an independent inquiry into war crimes and human rights violations in Sri Lanka?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No I do not think that will be the effect. I think actually the effect of Sri Lanka being in the chair and therefore hosting the event is that the world’s media will descend on Colombo and draw its own conclusions. I do note that before I came to the House I rummaged through my office to see whether I could find any statements from the Green Party about Sri Lanka becoming the chair a couple of years ago. It may have issued one but I am not sure I saw it.Jan Logie: Is he aware that local Tamils and Sinhalese human rights activists believe that the current approach of this Government is validating the regime and buying them time to entrench their power?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I am sure there is a range of views on the ground in Colombo and in Sri Lanka.Jan Logie: Will New Zealand support the call of United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron for an international inquiry into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: We may well do so; we have not drawn a conclusion on that yet.Hon Maryan Street: Why will he not move to create a process to challenge Sri Lanka’s chairing of the Commonwealth by working with other like-minded Commonwealth countries and thereby take an active rather than a passive approach to human rights records in that country?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Firstly the Government is not taking a passive approach. In the last 12 months the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been to Sri Lanka twice he has raised the issue of human rights with that Government and he is travelling to the north where significant human rights abuses may well have taken place during the back end of the civil war and I am having a meeting with the President to raise New Zealand’s concerns. I do not think that it is a strong argument that the Opposition can mount that we do not take human rights concerns in Sri Lanka seriously.