Locke Keith: Immigration Bill — In Committee 
Locke Keith: Immigration Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6674] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 I want to give an explanation of my amendment to clause 5(3)(a) of the Immigration Bill. I think it relates to what the previous speaker Allan Peachey was talking about: sure we control who comes across our borders but we have to do so in a very fair way. The Green Party is concerned as were various submitters that the definition of “security” as it relates to withholding information deemed to be classified was too loose. My amendment takes out a piece of it. That is instead of information being determined as classified if it is likely “(a) to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand or the international relations of New Zealand;” my amendment seeks to omit “or the international relations of New Zealand;” because it is so vague. As the Human Rights Commission said in its submission “Apart from the implications of using classified information in a wide range of immigration matters relying on concerns about the potential effect on New Zealand’s international reputation is problematic. Decisions about what amounts to a significant impact on a country’s reputation can be subjective. In the United Kingdom they have been described as ‘makeweight’ and held not to justify detention without trial in the absence of other reasons:”. The Auckland District Law Society said that the current definition which includes the phrase “significant impact on New Zealand’s international reputation” is considered too wide and incapable of sufficiently precise definition. 
I think members can see that in this Chamber we debate what is in the best interests of New Zealand’s international relations. We have big disagreements on that matter. For example at the moment I am looking at the ways in which the leader of the World Uyghur Congress Rebiya Kadeer could come to New Zealand and explain the cause of her people. If members look at that and how it will affect New Zealand’s international relations they will see that it will improve our relations with the Uyghur people it will improve our relations with the Tibetan people it will improve our relations with the democrats of China and it will improve our relations with democratic-minded people throughout the world but it will not necessarily improve our relations in the short term with the Chinese Government which is suppressing the Uyghur people as we speak. 
One can look at international relations in the short term or the long term. It may be that there is some penalty for New Zealand from the Chinese Government if we allow Rebiya Kadeer to come to New Zealand but if we give encouragement to the democratic forces of China that will carry on to other issues such as the fact that the Chinese Government at the moment is aiding Bainimarama in Fiji. If we have a more democratic China that might not be the case; it would help everyone. So it would be much better not to have vague terminology in that clause. Let us say that Rebiya Kadeer applies for a visa. We do not allow her to come in and the information explaining why we are denying her the visa is classified because it would affect the international relations of New Zealand. That is not the democratic path to go down. It would be much better to support my amendment and take that particular definition out of the bill. 
It is quite clear that Governments try to keep things under wraps as much as possible; I know that in the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee a lot of the documents we are provided by the ministry have bits chopped out. I think that often the ministry chops them out because those bits may embarrass other Governments. Sometimes there is a good reason for it. Other times it is because the ministry does not want to engage in more public diplomacy and everything is done behind closed doors and not very effectively. Effects on international relations are matters that are debated in this Parliament and debated across the community and people should not be denied visas to come into the country under the cover of classified information. Thank you.