Norman Russel: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Norman Russel: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 22 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4642. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 New Zealand has faced some major blows in recent years whether it is the earthquakes in Christchurch or the Pike River mine disaster. These events I think have perhaps seen many of us take the focus off the events in Afghanistan and New Zealand’s longstanding commitment to the events in Afghanistan. This is not just a New Zealand phenomena; it has actually been happening in the United States as well. 
However the recent tragic events mean that we must once again look at what we are doing in Afghanistan and how our military serving in Bamian Province can be brought home safely. Many other parliaments debate these kinds of military deployments on a regular basis—the German Parliament debates it every year. So we think it is important that New Zealand should have this debate. We were very disappointed that the Government blocked having a debate on this issue yesterday and that the Speaker did not give an urgent debate on this issue yesterday. We think this Parliament should be debating this issue. 
I want to make it clear from the outset that we consider that the current provincial reconstruction deployment should be the last. It should come to an end. The provincial reconstruction team’s deployment in Bamian is easily New Zealand’s most significant and dangerous overseas deployment since Viet Nam. Now is the time we believe for the Government to signal an end to our involvement in the Afghanistan war immediately and withdraw our troops as soon as possible. The ongoing loss of New Zealand life is too high a price to pay for a war we cannot influence and where the situation for our troops is increasingly dangerous. 
The role of the New Zealand force is no longer focused on simply reconstructing local communities and building schools but rather on patrolling a dangerous part of the country where our troops are being increasingly drawn into counter-insurgency operations that pose more dangers to them. New Zealand has had an active commitment in Afghanistan since 2001 so withdrawing our troops over a decade later is therefore in no sense cutting and running as some members of the Government have suggested. We New Zealand have made a significant commitment but the Green Party believes that the price now is too high to stay. The overall situation in Afghanistan is beyond our control and sending more New Zealand soldiers to the north-east of Bamian Province in particular at this time is indefensible and too dangerous. 
The Government has signalled an end to our commitment next year. I understand it has reached an agreement with the US Government to end in April. This is simply bringing forward the end date that was previously announced but the Greens believe we should bring it forward further. Of course we would not be the only country making that decision to bring forward our withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Netherlands withdrew in 2010; it now has police there but it does not have troops. And of course the new French Prime Minister Francois Hollande has signalled that he wants the vast bulk of French soldiers out this year. 
The overall outcome of the war in Afghanistan is beyond the control of New Zealand troops based in Bamian Province. According to news reports we have about 150 soldiers there. What is interesting is that in 2010 the then defence Minister Wayne Mapp was interviewed and he said that we had about 100 soldiers there and that we were planning to draw down from September 2011. Instead it seems like we have increased the number of troops that we have in Bamian. This is after the current President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai in early 2011 called for the withdrawal of the foreign provincial reconstruction teams in an interview with the BBC. So it was the President of Afghanistan who was calling for the withdrawal. Unfortunately this advice has not been heeded and rather than drawing down the provincial reconstruction team in Bamian the New Zealand Government instead has increased our commitment there. 
I think it is important to note that the initial premise of our provincial reconstructions team was that it was not ostensibly a fighting force. The original Beehive 
statement by Mark Burton in 2003 clearly stated that the provincial reconstruction team was not considered a combat unit. For many in New Zealand the danger faced by our soldiers has perhaps been underplayed. We have not realised the level of danger that they are exposed to but now that is clearly there for all to see. 
As our provincial reconstruction team has been pushed further out from the centre of Bamian Province so the danger to our soldiers has grown. The Taliban presence within Bamian and surrounding provinces has also increased in recent years. New Zealand’s losses in that province occurred in the north-east part of it. Earlier this month the Government took a Cabinet decision to widen even further the area of operations of our provincial reconstruction team. It seems to us that it is time for Cabinet to revisit that decision. Thank you.