Mark Ron: Crimes and Misconduct (Overseas Operations) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Mark Ron: Crimes and Misconduct (Overseas Operations) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12233] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I do not intend to rotary hoe the same paddock over and over again nor to go over much of the commentary by Richard Worth and the Hon Richard Prebble—who has far more experience in terms of the Solomon Islands than many other people if not any other person in this House. However I want to touch on just a couple of points. 
Firstly as I understand it this bill is not targeted specifically at the Solomons. It is true that it came to pass because in deploying troops civilian personnel and police into the Solomons it was recognised that we had a gap in our legislation in terms of criminal jurisdiction over those people we sent there. The question that comes to my mind is why had we not found this out some time ago. We have had peacekeeping personnel in many theatres all over the world for a great period of time. If I cast my mind back to the initial deployment of forces into the multinational force of observers in the Sinai in 1982 although the initial deployment had only military personnel New Zealand civilians were there. It seems rather strange that it took until 2003 for people to recognise that we had a gap in our legislation and in our criminal jurisdiction and to do something. It is even stranger that having identified that gap on 24 July 2003 we are sitting here under urgency on 31 March 2004 progressing this bill to the third reading. I suggest that it tends to indicate an element of tardiness on someone’s part. 
I feel the need to comment on a couple of comments that have been made. The historic nature of the deployment of our troops and police into the Solomons is acknowledged. I do find an irony in the fact that the main reason we sent police there was that people could not trust the Solomons police force to do its job—and here we are today. There were reports of police being involved in criminal activities and of widespread corruption. A friend of mine who worked in the Solomons for many years was flabbergasted to find that after the murder of a New Zealand businessman over there when everybody was discussing and openly talking about who had carried out that murder nothing had been done by the police to arrest that man. Also stories came back to New Zealand of police driving around in vehicles that had been reported as stolen and there were no charges. The irony is not lost on me. Here we are passing legislation to make it possible for us to prosecute our policemen should they err and the very reason for their being there is that the Solomons police were criminally in err. 
There were comments about New Zealand punching above its own weight and being overextended in deployments such as this. That was the very first comment I made for New Zealand First when it was announced that New Zealand was sending troops to the Solomons. My comments—and they were latterly picked up by the National Party—were that we were overextending ourselves and that this Government in particular in pursuit of international kudos had no consideration at all for the plight of the service personnel that it was tasking; it had no consideration at all for the plight of the families with service personnel just returning from one deployment and being sent off on another one; and it had no consideration or understanding of the level of commitment of our Defence Force personnel and of how thinly stretched they are on the ground. But that did not concern the Government because its overriding desire was to look good in front of the United Nations and the international community to paper over the cracks and to pretend that our deficiencies and shortfalls in personnel and the heavy workloads simply did not exist. 
That is precisely what Minister Burton said in response to my comments. I note that those comments were not shared by senior officers in the Defence Force and that they were later reflected in a paper that became public through the  
Sunday Star-Times 
. 
Barbara Stewart 
: How did that happen? 
RON MARK 
: Yes I wonder how that happened. Only then did the public of New Zealand get the true picture. To say that we are punching above our own weight is I think a wee bit boastful particularly in the light of recent medical surveys that show that the biggest threat to New Zealand’s health and wellbeing is obesity. [ 
Interruption 
] Do members get that? I think they will. The point is that we can sit here and applaud ourselves all we like pat ourselves on the back and bestow medals wreaths and kudos upon ourselves but the truth of the matter is that we are overextended. 
We know that operations like this are necessary. We know that intervention was necessary. But we in New Zealand have to either come to terms with the deficiencies in our Defence Force increase the overall staffing and increase the authorised level of manning or accept that we can no longer play the role in the Pacific that other nations would ask of us. That may mean a loss of face but I suggest that in the interests of the men and women who serve in our Defence Force and police force it would be the honourable and honest position to take. Failing that we will continue to do what we are currently doing. We will ask captains to step up to major jobs we will ask corporals to step up to sergeant and sergeant-major jobs we will pay them a little bit extra for the time when they do that and when they get back to New Zealand we will bust them back down to the rank we can afford. We will then task them with level 2 or 3 positions and demand that they perform to levels of training for which they have not yet been prepared. I say these things as a warning. I say these things because I have said them before. All of these things are relevant in the third reading because they are points that were made at the time the troops were deployed to the Solomons and at the time that this legislation was deemed necessary. 
For some reason I see that Mr—what is his name that lawyer who defended that murderer up north? Mr Fairbrother and the two Government whips have no interest in this discussion. They sit there talking about what they will do in the weekend when urgency is lifted and ignore constructive criticism and comment. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: No they’re swapping CVs for possible job opportunities. 
RON MARK 
: They are swapping CVs for possible job opportunities. Mr Fairbrother may have a job to go to but I am not too sure about that other young man. The point is that they ignore these comments at their peril and regretfully they ignore them at the expense of the good men and women in our defence forces and police force. 
I also want to say that it is rare that all the parties are unanimous in support of legislation. I went back through the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee report and without meaning to be churlish I did not see a minority report from the National Party expressing all the concerns that Mr Worth expressed. I am not being churlish but it is noted that if he had serious concerns they would have been written in the bill as a minority report and they are not at all. 
Judith Collins 
: He wasn’t on the select committee. 
RON MARK 
: The fact that Mr Worth was not on the select committee does not mean a thing. He could have been had he chosen to be. He could have asked to be subbed on and I am sure that one of his other members would have gladly let him have a seat. 
New Zealand First supports the passage of this bill. We pass on a flick in the ear to the Government for taking so long and we ask people to note that this legislation pertains to any future operations where police and civilian personnel may be deployed. I suggest that that will be an ongoing and regrettably a more frequent thing in the future.