Locke Keith: General Debate 
Locke Keith: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:21854] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 Not long after the Greens came into Parliament in 1999 National New Zealand First and ACT MPs tried to discredit the Greens’ strong human rights policy by portraying me as a supporter of the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot and of his genocidal crimes. I assured the House that those accusations were wrong but recently with an election looming both Winston Peters and Richard Prebble have been repeating those defamatory statements. I wish now to address the issue in more detail. 
Thirty years ago in 1975 the brutal corrupt regimes in Saigon and Phnom Penh which were backed by the American Government were overthrown by insurgent forces. Most New Zealanders who marched against the Indo-China war—which included many MPs who are currently in the House; myself and Helen Clark for example—welcomed the collapse of those regimes because it heralded the end of a very bloody war. The hope of anti-war New Zealanders including myself was that the new Governments in Saigon and Phnom Penh would be better than the regimes that they had replaced. We thought it would be hard for them to be worse. No distinction was made between the new Viet Namese and Cambodian Governments and many thought that the Khmer Rouge was an adjunct to the Viet Namese communist forces. Some time later the world found out that there was a difference and that the Khmer Rouge was acting in a genocidal way and we started to hear the name Pol Pot. 
I was a young socialist activist at the time Pol Pot’s horrors were exposed to the world. I along with other socialists like British journalist John Pilger did what we could to stop the Western nations from giving him any support. However we found that many Governments were determined to back Pol Pot. Those included the New Zealand National Government whose MPs included the very Winston Peters who has been so quick to call me a Pol Pot supporter. That National Government was determined not to back the Viet Namese - supported Heng Samrin Government that had taken over Phnom Penh in January 1979. There was a cold war on and the National Government including Mr Peters treated the genocidal Pol Pot Government as preferable to a Phnom Penh Government aligned with Viet Nam. 
It is interesting that in the House on 11 December 1979 the then Labour MP Richard Prebble urged National’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs David Thomson to “no longer recognise the Pol Pot regime”. But the National Government no doubt supported by the younger National MP Winston Peters kept on voting for Pol Pot to represent the Cambodian people at the United Nations and elsewhere. Unfortunately when Labour came to power in 1984 Mr Prebble and his colleagues changed their tune and voted for Pol Pot themselves in the UN. This continued right through the 1980s. When I became NewLabour’s foreign affairs spokesperson I debated with Labour’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Russell Marshall on National Radio on this very topic and I pleaded with him not to support Pol Pot. He insisted that his Government would continue to do so. I have found no record that Richard Prebble ever disagreed with the Cabinet that he was in. I will table some documents on this history for the enlightenment of the House. 
The basic problem we faced then as we do today is New Zealand Governments going soft on repressive regimes. Sometimes this has been because they see some short-term diplomatic or trade benefit as when National and Labour Governments supported Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor or in more recent times when they played down human rights violations in ASEAN countries like Malaysia and Singapore. Everyone knows that the Green Party has a consistent record of promoting international human rights which it showed most recently during Pakistan President Musharraf’s visit and during Chinese leader Wu Bangguo’s visit. 
The Greens also promote human rights clauses in trade treaties. Sadly we have failed to achieve an effective clause in the recent one negotiated with Thailand. We also know that among some in the House there is still a subordination to the American administration. We do not hear National ACT or New Zealand First criticising the violation of human rights by the Bush administration in Iraq Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay. A National Government would subordinate its foreign policy to America’s in the same way that the Holyoake National Government did in taking New Zealand into the Indo-China war and in the same way that the Muldoon National Government including Winston Peters did in backing the ruthless Pol Pot. 
 I seek leave to table a page in  
Hansard  
dated 14 December 1979 where in answer to a written question David Thomson the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs talks about “New Zealand’s continued recognition of the Pol Pot regime”. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There is. [ 
Interruption 
] Points of order will be heard in silence. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: I seek leave to table another document a record of questions for oral answer dated 11 December 1979 where Richard Prebble a Labour MP asked the Government to “no longer recognise the Pol Pot regime”. That Government was the National Government that Winston Peters was in. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There is. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: I seek leave to table a copy of the  
Dominion 
 dated 21 November 1975 where the journalist Richard Long talked about the “public distaste for the continued recognition of Pol Pot” by the National Government which included Winston Peters. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There is. 
Ron Mark 
: Point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I remind members of Standing Order 84/3 that points of order must be put tersely and only on the point of order raised but also that points of order must be heard in silence. That point is also made in Speaker’s ruling 19/6.