Graham KennedyDr KENNEDY GRAHAM (Green): Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. I want to confine my comments on this report to the section on foreign affairs and in particular to the nuclear disarmament section. In this respect the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee focused on the likely visit of a US naval vessel in November. Over the past 8 years the Prime Minister has approved under the 1987 nuclear-free Act every one of the 40 entry applications from many countries. Indeed over the decades since the Act entered into force not one ship has been refused whether under a National Government or a Labour Government and that is fine. This is unsurprising though because in the post - Cold War world it is a universal convention that no surface vessel is nuclear-armed and no submarine of course has dared to venture into our harbours so our nuclear-free policy I think we can conclude has stood the test of time. There is however one innovation we could consider as a House. The Act requires the Prime Minister to decide on the entry of foreign warships. Regard is to be had to all relevant information and advice that may be available and approval is granted only if the Prime Minister is satisfied such a warship is not carrying nuclear weapons. But the Act is silent on both procedure and transparency. There is no gazetting of a prime ministerial decision. There is no public announcement about the decision. By and large there is no publication of the information and advice given or of any exchange that might occur between the Governments. There is no reason for this but there is no legislative provision. I suggest there should be. The Committee may recall that the decision to ban nuclear-armed warships did not rest on any antipathy towards any particular country. It rested on a strategic determination that nuclear deterrence is irrational. In the case of New Zealand our national security was reduced not enhanced through being defended by a nuclear power given that we would also become a nuclear target as a result. Whatever the probability of attracting a nuclear strike it would be greater than zero and so the national security would be a net negative. US nuclear weapons may strike somewhere else but Soviet or Chinese weapons would strike us. I know this because as a diplomat in Geneva at the time I wrote a book for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research explaining the reasoning behind our policy with advice. Back then we believed in the policy and the world took notice. I recall the close attention given to our speeches promoting the new policy in Geneva at least until we caved and adopted the not-for-export rider in 1988 and the Government somewhat duplicitously continued then—and has since—to oppose proposals at the UN General Assembly that call for total nuclear disarmament. Calls for complete nuclear disarmament continue to this day. New Zealand continues to be weak on the issue citing the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) as the critical treaty-based approach to global strategic stability but this is incorrect. The NPT is an arms control measure. A comprehensive nuclear weapons convention is a disarmament measure. The NPT lays the path in article 6 to the elimination of nuclear weapons from national arsenals. The failure of the nuclear powers to negotiate under article VI in good faith justifies the drafting of a comprehensive convention by the non-nuclear States and its entry into force irrespective of the nuclear powers. This in turn rests on the determination of the World Court that the use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to international law and humanitarian law in particular. That judicial opinion—20 years old this Friday—mirrors public opinion. A global poll 3 years ago showed 90 percent of the global public think such weapons are inhumane and 80 percent believe they should be banned. The Humanitarian Pledge signed by many UN member States reflects that opinion. The committee's report is fine but it is important for New Zealand and especially this Government to stand firm on its nuclear-free policy and not backslide.