Goff Phil: General Debates 
Goff Phil: General Debates 
[Volume:616;Page:11722] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. When Dr Brash came into the House this afternoon and took a call before questions I thought he was going to apologise to the House and that is what most members of the House would have expected. There are two apologies Dr Brash should have made to the House if he wants to retrieve his credibility—the first in response to the personal comments he made about the Prime Minister. It is never edifying when members of the House reflect on the family circumstances of other members. It happens too often. It should not have happened and Dr Brash to retain any credibility should have been first up in this House today to apologise for that. 
The other matter in relation to personal affairs of members was his criticism of the personal religious beliefs of other members. In my 21 years in this House I have never heard a member get up and criticise the personal religious and spiritual beliefs of somebody else. That is a disgrace. That belies every effort made by the Leader of the Opposition to present himself as Mr Clean above politics. Clearly he has destroyed that image for all time. That is the worst form of politicking that we see regrettably in this House on rare occasions. What Mr Brash may learn from that experience is that self-righteousness in this House is always a risk. 
The second apology owed by Dr Brash was to New Zealand for his shameful performance in the 
 Australian 
 this week in bad-mouthing his own country overseas. Has Dr Brash learnt nothing from the behaviour of his predecessors Mr English and Mrs Shipley that New Zealanders do not appreciate so-called New Zealand leaders getting up and poor-mouthing their nation overseas? What he did was to criticise New Zealand’s track record in security and peacekeeping operations in the Pacific. I would be surprised if there were a single member of this House—a single New Zealander—who was not proud of what this country has contributed in places like East Timor and the Solomons. But what did Dr Brash do—safely he thought—in a newspaper in Australia? He gave support to claims that New Zealand had not pulled its weight in promoting peace in the Pacific and we have heard the same comment from Dr Smith. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: That’s right. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: I want to tell that member as I also tell Dr Brash that this country has a proud record. This country was the first country into East Timor in support of the advance Australian group. This country was the country that made the biggest per capita contribution of any member of the international community in East Timor and I for one and members on this side of the House are proud of what our people did there. 
Dr Brash also supported those who say that New Zealand did not do enough in the Solomon Islands. New Zealand provided 229 Defence Force personnel. It provided four helicopters. It provided 35 members of the police force and it provided $14 million on an ongoing basis in development assistance. Yet Dr Brash goes out and says in Australia that we are not pulling our weight. When challenged by the New Zealand media to repeat those comments in this country he refused. He was the brave person who would speak to an Australian newspaper to ingratiate himself with an Australian audience but would not front up in this country to try to justify his comments running down New Zealanders. 
Then he said that the state of the relationship between New Zealand and Australia had never been worse. I find that interesting because John Howard said last year that the relationship “has never been in better shape”. John Howard was praising New Zealand yet Don Brash was saying in Australia that New Zealand was not pulling its weight. Then Alexander Downer made this comment about our contribution in the Solomons: “New Zealand deserves a sizable slice of credit for their excellent performance and the New Zealand Government has done a great thing being such a driver of the process.” Dr Brash should front up and justify the comments he made in New Zealand.