Delahunty Catherine: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 05 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10834. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs: Will he or a Cabinet Minister on his behalf meet with senior church leader and human rights defender Reverend Socratez Yoman from West Papua next week at Parliament when he visits; if not why not?Hon MURRAY McCULLY (Minister of Foreign Affairs): No; I will be travelling next week on official business but officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be meeting with the Reverend Yoman.Catherine Delahunty: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was: “Will he or a Cabinet Minister”. He did not answer that.Mr SPEAKER: Well he did. He said “No” right at the start. [Interruption] Order! The member has raised a point of order and I have addressed it. I think she now understands why. Now we can move to the next supplementary question.Catherine Delahunty: Has he ever met with an indigenous rights leader from West Papua to discuss human rights abuses?Hon MURRAY McCULLY: Not that I can recall.Catherine Delahunty: Does he stand by his statement that he will “condemn human rights abuses wherever they occur”; if so has he publicly condemned Indonesia for the arrest of 1700 West Papuans in just the last 3 days for exercising their freedom of expression and assembly?Mr SPEAKER: There are two supplementary questions. The member can address either.Hon MURRAY McCULLY: I have been following with some interest the reports of the arrests that the member refers to and I have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to report to me with further information including information that it might receive from the Reverend Yoman next week. Can I tell the member that I routinely raise human rights questions with representatives of the Indonesian Government and further at last year’s Pacific Islands Forum meetingthe Prime Minister signed up on behalf of New Zealand to a joint statement that saw the forum take some steps to engage with Indonesia on precisely this question.Catherine Delahunty: I seek leave to table a letter from the Minister to myself on 13 April 2016 in which he says that he will condemn human rights abuses wherever they occur including in West Papua.Mr SPEAKER: I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular letter. Is there any objection? There is none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Catherine Delahunty: What evidence does he have that limiting his condemnation to polite conversations with the Indonesian Government has ever made a difference given the ongoing State-sanctioned killing and torture of West Papuans?Hon MURRAY McCULLY: As I indicated in response to an earlier supplementary question I have been following the reports of arrests with some interest. The Government is concerned about these matters and the Government wants to see an improvement in the situation in that part of the world. The Government does not believe that megaphone diplomacy will serve that objective.