Motions — Malaysia Airlines—Flight MH17 Crash in Ukraine Gaza—ConflictText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMotions — Malaysia Airlines—Flight MH17 Crash in Ukraine Gaza—Conflict[Sitting date: 22 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19251. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Tuesday 22 July 2014Mr Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Karakia.MotionsMalaysia Airlines—Flight MH17 Crash in UkraineRt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister):I seek leave to move a motion without notice in relation to Flight MH17.Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I move That this House express its condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives on Flight MH17 register its dismay at the constraints that have been imposed by armed separatist groups impeding the international investigation call on those groups to cooperate immediately and unreservedly with international authorities and urge Russia to use its influence with those groups to ensure the investigation and recovery operation proceeds appropriately and unimpeded. The New Zealand Government has been shocked by the events surrounding Flight MH17. All New Zealanders will wish to join me in expressing our sadness to the families of the New Zealanders who perished. We are also greatly saddened by the grievous casualties borne by our friends in other countries particularly the Netherlands Malaysia and Australia. I have spoken with leaders of those countries to pass on the condolences of the New Zealand Government and people.The Government has been deeply concerned by the lack of appropriate and secure access to the site of the crash of Flight MH17 over the course of the last few days and by suggestions that armed groups have interfered with evidence. We are appalled that the bodies of those who died may not have been accorded proper and dignified treatment. We are disturbed by continuing hostilities in the region which have hampered the investigation. There are reports that many of the bodies have now been collected but others still remain at the site and it is essential that they too be quickly collected and the site remain secured for a proper international investigation. Two hundred and ninety-eight people including people who called New Zealand home have been caught up in a conflict they had no part in. President Putin must use his influence with the rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine to ensure that a ceasefire takes effect so the international investigating team can undertake the important work unimpeded and without danger to themselves. Acting on instruction the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has also registered this message with Russian diplomats to convey back to their authorities.On 19 July New Zealand made a statement to the United Nations Security Council calling for an international thorough credible and independent investigation. This morning New Zealand co-sponsored Australia’s resolution on this matter at the Security Council. The international community has made clear the need for urgent action and we expect the Security Council to show leadership and work together to support all international efforts in resolving this crisis. This terrible event reinforces the urgent need for an end to hostilities in eastern Ukraine and for the dispute to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition):I stand firm with the Prime Minister on this matter. The Labour Party expresses its deepest sympathies to the families of all aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. The tragic deaths of the 298 people on board apparently shot down over a war zone are a heartbreaking loss. Our thoughts are especially with the families of the New Zealanders and New Zealand residents killed in the crash—Robert Ayley Mary Menke and Gerry Menke—and also with the families of the deceased of those of other nations. Losing a loved one can only be a horrific experience and their loss will be so much worse in circumstances such as these.There is nothing that any of us can do to lessen their grief but we can push for answers as to how this terrible tragedy happened who is responsible and how we can prevent anything like this ever happening again in future. We join with the international community in calling for a swift independent investigation of the crash site to establish the causes of the crash. We expect nothing less than the full cooperation of all parties concerned including Russia and the Ukrainian separatists. I would add that I support the sentiments and actions of the New Zealand Government in pursuing this end.We are encouraged by the news that the black boxes from MH17 have now been handed over to the Malaysian authorities and that safe secure access to the site for international investigators has now been guaranteed. But the Russian Government must also step up and take responsibility for ensuring that international efforts to find the answers we need are not hampered and that a full inquiry is allowed to take place no matter what answers that inquiry may find.METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green):Tēnā koutou e te Whare. The Green Party wishes to support this motion and to convey our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. The tragedy has cost the lives of 298 innocent people who had nothing to do whatsoever with the conflict in Ukraine. But then all war takes innocent lives. War is itself an atrocity. Our thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones in this crime against humanity. Many countries around the world have been directly affected by this tragedy—the Netherlands and Malaysia including for them 15 crew members. Australia has lost more than 30 of its own. We make particular acknowledgment of the New Zealand families who are grieving for their lost loved ones.The Green Party supports the United Nations Security Council call for an international investigation into the downing of the Malaysia Airlines passenger flight. It is vital that those armed groups in control of the region do allow access to the crash site and ensure that its integrity is maintained. It is most vital for the families that have lost loved ones that their relatives receive dignified respectful and professional treatment in the recovery operation. The tragedy of MH17 shows just how quickly an internal conflict within a country can spiral out of control and how a conflict thousands of miles from New Zealand can affect us all. It is vital that the international community as well as seeking justice for the victims of MH17 and their families puts all of its efforts into promoting peace in the Ukraine. Thank you.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):This grave matter concerns our nation and because we should speak in condemnation with one voice New Zealand First endorses the comments of the Prime Minister and other party leaders.TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā tātau katoa e te Whare. He pai tonu tō karakia i te rā nei hei tīmatanga kōrero i a tātau e kōrero nei i tēnei take. He kupu kōrero tērā ki te wāhi ngāro kia ūhia mai ngā manaakitanga ki runga i tēnei Whare otirā i te motu te ao. Me mihi ki a koe mō tō āhua i te rā nei. Tērā pea he kupu kōrero tērā kia ūhia anōtia rā ki runga i ngā whānau e tangi nei i tēnei wā.Nō reira koutou e tangi nei i tēnei rā anei te Whare Pāremata o Aotearoa e tuku ana i ngā poroporoaki ki ō koutou mate ahakoa nō hea wērā mate nō tēhea takiwā o te ao hei tāpiri ki tā koutou e tangi nei i tēnei wā. Koutou i mate i te āhuatanga o aituā tau atu.Ēngari anei tēnei Whare Pāremata e tangi nei mō te āhuatanga o te rāwekeweke i a koutou. E te Whare Pāremata kei te tautoko ake te Pāti Māori i tā te Pirimia e kōrero nei. Hāunga te āhuatanga pakanga waiho tērā ki te taha. Ko tā te Pāti Māori e kī nei me whakaaro tātau mō te hunga mate te hunga kua kōhurutia kua mate ēhara nō rātau te hē ēngari nō te āhuatanga tohe a tētahi i tētahi.I roto i Te Ao Māori inā mate te tangata kua noho tapu tērā hei wāhi tapu. E kore tētahi e rāwekeweke ēngari ka manaakitia tērā wāhi whenua ka tiakinatia kia noho tapu ki te tirohanga o te tangata. Kāre tātau i te kite i tērā āhuatanga i tēnei wā. Ka haere poka noa te tangata ki runga i te whenua. Kāre ōna take mō te āhuatanga o tērā hunga i kōhurutia. Nō reira ēhara i te mea mō Te Ao Māori tēnei whakaaro ake kia noho tapu te whenua kāo mō te nuinga o te ao. Kia pērā rawa te āhuatanga o te tiaki hunga mate. Kia kaua e rāwekeweke. Waiho rātau kia moe kia okioki. Kia kaua e takatakahi i te hunga mate. He rā tōna pea ka hoki mai ki te ngau i a koe ēngari waiho tērā kōrero ki reira.Koinei te kōrero ka ākina e te Pāti Māori waiho te hunga mate ki te hunga mate whakahokia ki ō rātau whānau. Kai Ahitereira kai Tatimana kai ngā tōpito katoa o te ao ētahi whānau e tangi nei e auwē nei e noho mokemoke nei e noho pouwaru nei nā ngā mate e takoto mai rā i tērā whenua o Ukraine me kī. Ko te Pāti Māori tēnei e kī nei ahakoa tō mātau pakupaku whakahokia ngā tūpāpaku ki ō rātou whānau kia taea ai e rātau te tuku roimata hūpē kia ngāwari mai ai tēnei mea a mate. Tēnā tātau katoa.[Greetings to us all in the House. Your prayer today Mr Speaker was really an appropriate way to commence our addresses on this matter. There was a plea there to the spiritual realm to protect this House and indeed the nation and the world. I commend you for the compassion you displayed today. Perhaps there was a plea there as well to protect the families grieving at this point in time.And so to you collectively grieving today here is the Parliament of New Zealand offering its tributes to your dead regardless of where they are fromand whicharea of the world and adding to your laments at this point in time. To you the dead victims of the circumstance of calamity alight.But here in this House of Parliament we grieve for the meddlesome manner that brought about your death. To the House of Parliament we the Māori Party absolutely endorse the Prime Minister’s sentiments. We will leave the situation relating to the war to one side. We the Māori Party advocate that we should focus our minds on the dead the ones who were treacherously murdered who died through no fault of their own but rather through the circumstance of contention between one and another.When a person dies in Māoridom that place becomes a sacred one a forbidden place. No one can meddle with it but instead that place is protected and looked after so that it remains sacred toone’sview. To date we have not seen that situation. People merely tramp about on the land. They display no respect for those people who were treacherously murdered. This regard for the land to remain sacred is therefore not just a Māori thing but one that most of the world has as well. And that is the level of respect expected for those who have died. They must not be meddled with. They should be allowed to sleep and rest. The dead must not be violated. A day might perhaps come when they come back and bite you but leave that sort of talk there.This is what the Māori Party urges: leave the dead amongst the dead but return them to their families. There are some families in Australia Holland and in every extremity of the world mourning crying and left lonely and widowed by the dead lying over there in the land of Ukraine. This is the Māori Party saying that despite the fact that we might be small in number we demand that the deceased be returned to their families to enable them to shed their tears and mucus upon them and to ease the pain from this thing called death. Thank you all.]Motion agreed to.Gaza—ConflictRt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister):I seek leave to move a motion without notice in relation to the situation in Gaza.Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I move That this House express grave concern at the deteriorating situation in Gaza particularly the appalling and unacceptable number of civilian casualties and express strong support for international efforts to obtain an immediate ceasefire and end hostilities so that both parties can return to negotiations and work towards a permanent two-State solution.On 17 July after 10 days of heavy shelling in response to rocket fire from Gaza-based militants Israel launched a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. We have expressed our concern at the latest escalation of this conflict the origins of which include the kidnapping of three Israeli teens on the West Bank in early June. Indiscriminate firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel by Hamas and other groups is unacceptable and must immediately cease. Israel has the right to defend itself from these attacks. Israel’s citizens who live in towns near the Gaza Strip live in daily fear of rocket fire. At the same time the nature of Israel’s response has resulted in deep international concern at the growing number of civilian deaths. Israel is providing warnings to evacuate areas prior to striking them but in many cases the people of Gaza 75 percent of whom are refugees have nowhere to go. The United Nations reports that the humanitarian conditions in parts of Gaza are dire.It is clear that both sides have breached international law by failing to protect civilians including firing indiscriminately into civilian populations. This challenges basic principles of acceptable international behaviour. For the sake of their people both sides must agree to an immediate and lasting ceasefire. This is imperative. We have been deeply disappointed that to date ceasefire initiatives have failed. We urge all parties to continue efforts to de-escalate the situation. Last week we added our voice to the United Nations Security Council’s call for a ceasefire but we also strongly support United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the Middle East in an effort to mediate a cessation of hostilities.Once a ceasefire has been obtained there is an urgent need to address the underlying causes of this conflict to avoid a repetition of these dreadful events in another 2 years’ time. This pattern of conflict has gone on too long. We have consistently called for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through negotiations. These latest incidents reinforce the importance of a sustainable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The New Zealand Government wants to see a permanent two-State solution so that both parties can live in peace and security.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition):The Labour Party joins with this Parliament in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and in so doing expresses its support for the Government’s motion expressing grave concern at the ground invasion of Gaza and at the firing of rockets into Israel. To date there have been more than 500 Palestinians killed in Gaza—most of them women children and non-combatants. No parent and no humanitarian could fail to be deeply moved by this tragic suffering. Twenty-five Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilians have also been killed.The death toll however reveals the disproportionate nature of this conflict. It is impossible to conduct a ground war and use F16s and missiles in such a congested area where 1.6 million people live on a strip of land without innocent people being killed. Neither should rockets simply be fired into Israeli civilian areas.We should also not forget that this violence is symptomatic of other issues that have never been resolved. No population should live behind barbed wire fences where electricity is rationed food controlled and people’s ability to move in and out of Gaza constrained. What sort of future can young Gazans look forward to where unemployment is 40 percent and there is no ability to escape? The seeds of future conflict are being sown in the inability of Israel Palestine and the international community to make the tough decisions to end the current stand-off.Until now no side has been willing to agree to a ceasefire. Pressure needs to be applied to ensure that that happens. Our Government should have already told the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand that although we recognise the right of both the State of Israel and the Palestinian State to exist in peaceful coexistence we condemn the loss of many innocent lives. Our ambassadors around the world should likewise be sending an unequivocal message to their Israeli counterparts and where possible Palestinian ones: New Zealand wants to see a peaceful just end to the Middle East conflict.Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM (Green):Yet again we have a round of mutual lethality between Israel and Hamas except that the military asymmetry means that the death toll runs against Palestinians by a factor of several hundred to one. Some 500 Palestinian civilians have been killed of whom 80 percent or more are children and elderly. Here are some: Hiji-ziya Hamed al-Hilu aged 80; Saber Sukkar aged 80; Salah Awad al-Nawasra aged 6; Nidal Khalaf al-Nawasra aged 5; and Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra aged 4. Then we must mourn as well the murder of the teenagers. On the Israeli side: Eyal Yifrah aged 19; Gilad Shaar aged 16; Naftali Fraenkel aged 16; and on the Palestinian side Mohammed Abu Khdeir aged 16.This is an unmitigated tragedy all round. So how should New Zealand react to the latest crisis? What should the New Zealand policy be? The fundamental issue at stake in this crisis from 1948 to 2014 is the occupation of Palestine by Israel. Everything emanates from this: the refusal to implement the UN framework for peace under the Oslo accords the continuing and expanding settlements the wall which is judged by the World Court to be illegal and the excessive use of force by Israel. This is not to condone the firing of rockets by Hamas. We do not condone violence by anyone. But let us recognise the violence of Hamas for what it is: a desperate attempt at resistance by an oppressed people. And so following we must recognise Israel’s violence for what it is: a continuation of oppression for an illusory kind of security.As it happens the UN Charter requires a member State when exercising self-defence to immediately report it to the Security Council. I have scrutinised the formal communications to the Security Council over the past week by both Israel as member State and Palestine as observer State. Each advances its own case. Palestine on 14 July appeals for all possible measures by the international community to provide immediate protection to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the occupied State of Palestine “against the ongoing savagery and military aggression being perpetrated by Israel.” On 16 July Israel calls on the international community to stop the attacks on Israeli citizens by unequivocally condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to defend its citizens.Israel justifies its actions in Gaza in the name of self-defence. The inherent right of self-defence sanctioned in international law for several centuries now does not justify what Israel is currently doing in Gaza. Most jurists around the world are describing the Israeli actions as an excessive use of force and a violation of humanitarian law. If this is self-defence it is time the principle evolved in a manner that precludes this kind of response for we all know that whatever the principle of self-defence might justify it does not justify the kind of collateral civilian damage to Palestinians that we have been witnessing this past week.The Green Party is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for Israel to withdraw its military forces. We condemn the violence and invasion of Gaza and the disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military. We call on the United Nations Secretary-General to establish a fact-finding inquiry into the events and submit the report to the General Assembly and to Switzerland as the depositary Government of the Fourth Geneva Convention. We call on the New Zealand Government to call for a consideration by the UN of economic and other sanctions against Israel as occurred with South Africa in the 1990s and 1980s. If the Security Council in its ineffable wisdom is unable to address the issue perhaps the General Assembly can consider such a course of action under the Uniting for Peace precedent. We call on the Government to increase New Zealand humanitarian aid through appropriate UN agencies targeted at relieving the human suffering in Gaza. We support the idea of Palestine acceding to the Rome Statute and referring a complaint to the International Criminal Court alleging individual leadership crimes against humanity by certain named leaders in the conflict. If Israel feels justified in referring Palestinians to the International Criminal Court it only has to accede to the Rome Statute and join the court as well.There will be no end in sight to this conflict as long as there is a relationship of oppressed-oppressor in Israel and Palestine. Israel has a right to exist peacefully and securely but it will not find this in the sustained brutal and dehumanising oppression of Palestinians. There will be no end in sight as long as the only options open to Hamas are surrender or resistance. The accord between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas went some way to recognising the legitimacy of each. I say this not to offer support for all policies of each but to reiterate that although the struggles and opinions of some might stir distaste the grievances of a people deserve to be heard with open ears and to be engaged with respectfully.I do not think that power over others will ever lead to lasting peace for Israel. Work needs to be done to build mutual respect for the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians and Israelis. This will need an abundance of empathy and a re-humanising of each other in the other’s eyes. No doubt crimes have been committed against civilians by both military groups and both require condemnation but in the longer term peace requires a political realignment and a refashioning of mind-set perhaps on all our parts before a settlement is achieved and peace is finally secured.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):New Zealand First joins with other parties in this House in expressing grave concern at the deteriorating situation in Gaza. All parties to that conflict must step back from the brink of so much mutual destruction. We concur in expressing our support for international efforts to obtain an immediate ceasefire and to end hostilities. We trust that those international endeavours be both quick and effective. Both parties to the conflict must return to negotiations and work towards a permanent solution that will ensure peace and stability for all the people of that area.Motion agreed to.