Collins Judith; Henare Peeni; Mallard TrevorHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the New Zealand National Party to express our heartfelt sorrow for the tragic loss of life due to the terror attack at Kabul airport. Our condolences go out to the families and friends these victims leave behind and to all those who've suffered needlessly from terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and elsewhere. There is nothing that we can say today that will bring the comfort that they need but what we can do is continue to speak up and condemn such senseless cowardly violence whenever and wherever it occurs. New Zealand will always continue to speak up for basic humanity for human rights and democracy for the right to religious freedom and freedom of expression for women's rights and the rights of children. I can now add to that the rights of artists the rights of those who say the things that regimes don't want to hear and the right to live free from violence and fear. And so to those who perpetrated this attack on these freedoms we condemn you absolutely. We will have no truck with you.Equally to the brave men and women of our Defence Force who have served in Afghanistan and elsewhere we express our sincerest gratitude. I can add to that the brave men and women of the New Zealand Police who worked so tirelessly to help build and train the Afghan national police. Your hard work and professionalism under such harsh conditions is something that all New Zealand should be proud of. The difficult situation facing the Afghan people today does not mean that the amazing work that you have done over the last 20 years was for nothing as some have suggested. Your work saved lives. You built infrastructure. You built schools. You built water systems. You enabled young girls to go to school. That counts. One of the great privileges I've had in my time in politics to date has been being able to be with you in Afghanistan visiting with New Zealand Police and also with our Defence Force. I've seen some of the work and the successes you've had in places like Bamian Province and I've seen you working in Kabul. There was a time when travelling in Afghanistan and Kabul where our SAS personal protection officer said to me Look out the window Minister." I looked out the window and I saw hordes of people complete chaos people seeming to just somehow make their way through life and he said "Now look at those young girls. They're in school uniforms. They're going to school. That's why our job counts." and by goodness that was why their job counted. They made an opportunity that would not have been there otherwise.But the fact that we were forced to leave behind many of our Afghan allies people who risked their lives to support our Defence and Police personnel is extremely concerning. There's a humanitarian crisis of historic proportions happening in Afghanistan and it is concerning that the Government seems to have been caught so unprepared. It is a stain on our work in Afghanistan. The political situation in Afghanistan has moved quickly but it should have been no surprise that something like this would happen. The Prime Minister here indicated in February this year that New Zealand would withdraw our forces from Afghanistan. The people left behind may well be the drivers the labourers the interpreters the cleaners and the cooks—innocent people to whom we owe a debt. Some wrote directly to the Prime Minister in May this year and it's been reported that the immigration Minister rejected many of the applications to come to New Zealand as recently as July. The lives of these people are now at risk but the Government hasn't explained why those pleas were rejected.Other countries have been evacuating these people for months and it seems we've waited too late. So there are some questions that deserve an answer from the Minister. Why was the evacuation not completed weeks ago given the withdrawal of troops was signalled early this year?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): Thank you for the question. The fall of the Afghanistan Government occurred far quicker than any of the intelligence predicted. Even in early August a week before the Taliban seized Kabul US officials were still assessing that a swift Taliban takeover would still take approximately 90 days. New Zealand along with the international community and partners worked with the best intelligence we had at the time decisions were made. We have responded to this unfolding humanitarian crisis as quickly as we could. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): How many Afghan people who supported our Defence Force were unable to be evacuated?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): I thank the member for the question. The numbers that were evacuated from the airport in Kabul are currently still being processed. We'll have a clearer indication of those final numbers in the coming days I'm sure. With respect to those who we know worked with the Defence Force we have continued to stay in touch with them. We know that for some even getting to the airport was particularly difficult and weren't even in the vicinity of the airport. In fact some had already reported to us that they were still in the Bamian Province. The Prime Minister made it clear that our commitment is still to those people and we'll continue to do what we can as a country to support the efforts to evacuate more people out of Afghanistan alongside our multinational partners.Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): With our Defence Force effectively exiting in May this year why was a decision not made to bring out those interpreters and others who'd worked with our Defence Force?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): Thank you Mr Speaker. Look our first attempts to take out some of these people were back in the time of the member's Government and at that point in time the eligibility criteria were smaller than the eligibility criteria that this Government chose to operate by which saw this list actually grow. In fact some people are talking about just simply interpreters but because of the definition that we used for the eligibility criteria we see the inclusion of interpreters engineers mechanics and others on to this list. We will continue as I've said to work with our multinational partners to ensure that we exhaust avenues to evacuate not just the people that we're talking with respect to those who worked with or alongside the New Zealand Defence Force but of course others who have the ability and visas etc. to come to Aotearoa New Zealand.Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Does the Minister accept that under the previous National Government when efforts were taken to then bring to New Zealand interpreters we were leaving in Afghanistan troops?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): Sorry I'm trying to work through that question actually. What I'm quite clear on with respect to those who worked alongside the New Zealand Defence Force and the numbers that we were looking towards this deployment—I want to talk to this deployment because it's the one that I made my statement on—our deployment to evacuate as many people as we can I stick to the list that we as the New Zealand Defence Force had with the extended eligibility criteria that we decided on as Cabinet. But I want to say to that as we look towards how we might do ongoing support with respect to evacuating not just that list but others who tried to flee Afghanistan and come to New Zealand we're committed to continuing to support action there and we'll do that alongside our multinational partners.Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): So why did the immigration Minister reject an application for resettlement in July as has been reported in the media?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): I ask that member to direct her question to the Minister of Immigration. I will say however that from the time that our Government considered the evacuation process the numbers in the people who were coming through the numbers that were coming to be a part of the list was a fluid number and it continued to rise. But otherwise to the specific case that she talks to I ask the member to refer her question to the immigration Minister.Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Did he ever ask his colleague the immigration Minister why he rejected an application for resettlement in July as reported in the media?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): I continue to have ongoing discussions with my colleague the Minister of Immigration but I can't speak to that particular case. He and I have several conversations—quite a number of conversations actually—on the matter of the interpreters and others who were identified in the New Zealand Defence Force list. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Has the Government made any attempt to communicate with the Afghans that we've left behind and have those communications been successful?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): The answer is yes and we will continue to do that in our attempt and our effort to support them to evacuate from Afghanistan.Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Will the Government allocate any of our refugee quota specifically for the Afghan people who we have left behind?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): That decision is probably left for not me as Minister for the New Zealand Defence Force but I will say as part of our efforts with respect to our multinational response to continue evacuation from Afghanistan and the resettlement of refugees we will continue to work with our multinational partners including the UN.Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Have any New Zealand citizens been left behind?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): As I indicated earlier in one of my answers a number of the evacuees are still being processed and the numbers will be clear on who exactly was evacuated. From there we'll have a better sense of who was left behind.SPEAKER: I'm going to apologise. I forgot to ring the one-minute warning so I will give the Leader of the Opposition a final question.Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): Thank you Mr Speaker. So to the Minister: Minister are you saying that you don't know if any New Zealand citizens have been left behind? If you don't know can you tell us? Otherwise can you just tell us how many have been left behind?Hon PEENI HENARE (Minister of Defence): I'll reiterate my answer that the numbers that were evacuated from Afghanistan are still being processed by our officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Immigration New Zealand. Once those numbers have been settled I'm sure we'll have another discussion then."