Chadwick Steve: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Urgent Questions 
Chadwick Steve: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Urgent Questions 
[Volume:636;Page:6998] 
2.  
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
 to the  
Minister of Defence 
: What agreement has been reached with Viet Nam veterans’ organisations to address grievances arising from their service in Viet Nam? 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 I am very pleased to advise the House that a full agreement has been reached between the Government and the Ex-Vietnam Services Association and the New Zealand RSA over resolving longstanding grievances on the part of Viet Nam veterans. I am particularly pleased that this has been achieved in the Year of the Veteran and that 34 years after the last serviceman left Viet Nam a strong foundation has been laid for at last resolving those grievances and for bringing closure. 
Steve Chadwick 
: What response to the package has the Minister received? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: We have received a very positive response from the Ex-Vietnam Services Association and the RSA. Chris Mullane from the Ex-Vietnam Services Association has described the package as “fair and sustainable” and John Campbell the president of the New Zealand RSA has praised it as “a comprehensive and reasonable package” which is “worthy just and fair”. I am also pleased that by and large there has been a positive response from all quarters of the House where parties have heeded the request of the veterans’ organisations that there should be bipartisan endorsement for this policy and that this issue should not be made into a political football. 
Judith Collins 
: Why has the Government refused to fund the annual medical check-ups for Viet Nam veterans and refused to refund the tax that Viet Nam veterans paid while on active service for their country as was recommended by the joint working group? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: If the member reads the document carefully she will see that there will be a comprehensive medical check-up provided for all veterans free of charge and a specialist visit provided. The member is guilty of what she was nodding sagely about before—that this issue should not be made into a partisan issue. I do not intend to make it into that but no member with a history of her party’s should indulge in hypocrisy either. 
Steve Chadwick 
: What are the major provisions of this package? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I have called Steve Chadwick. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Was that answer in order? 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The Minister addressed the question. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: He made an accusation at the end of it. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Members will please be seated. I did not hear the accusation because—and this is the last time I will say this to members—it is very hard to hear when members start barracking. Everyone is on his or her final warning. 
Steve Chadwick 
: What are the major provisions of the package? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: The package is in three parts. Each part firstly acknowledges the past; secondly puts things right; and thirdly improves services for veterans. Amongst its most important provisions—and there are about 25 of them—are firstly an apology for and an acknowledgement of the legitimate grievances of those veterans that have been ignored for far too long; secondly a whakanoa or a welcome home by the New Zealand Defence Force to make up for the fact that there never was a proper welcome home for these veterans; thirdly financial compensation for those suffering from prescribed medical conditions—that is conditions related directly to their service in Viet Nam; and fourthly and lastly an endowment fund of some $7 million the interest from which will provide assistance to veterans and their families who are in need notwithstanding whether that need was directly as a result of service indirectly related or for some other reason. 
Judith Collins 
: Why has the Government still not implemented many of the recommendations made by the Health Committee—a multiparty recommendation—2 years ago following its inquiry into the effects of Agent Orange and other defoliants in Viet Nam? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Again the member seems not to have heard the description I quoted from the two organisations representing the veterans—unless she believes that she can better represent them—saying that this is a fully comprehensive package and that it is a fair just and full package that adequately and sustainably meets the critical needs of veterans. That member and her party did nothing in the decades in which they were in office notwithstanding that it was the party that sent veterans to Viet Nam. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The Minister will be seated. Those last comments were unnecessary. 
Ron Mark 
: What lessons can be learnt from this issue considering that it has been 41 years since the first Kiwi soldier was sent to Viet Nam; that it is about 17 years since Geoff Braybrooke a Labour member of Parliament brought a member’s bill to the House to address the problems facing Viet Nam veterans; that it is about 7 years since the shonky Reeves report came out which was influenced by the National Government of the day; that it is about 5 years since the shonky McLeod report came out; and that it is 2 years since the Health Committee reported to the House— 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would the member please ask his question. He is making a speech. 
Ron Mark 
: —what lessons can be learnt to ensure that travesties such as these never ever blight this country’s record again? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: I will restrict myself to two lessons that I think can be learnt. Firstly the Viet Nam veterans themselves were blamed for the war in Viet Nam. That was not a decision of the veterans; they were simply professional soldiers who followed the instructions of the Government of the day that sent them to Viet Nam. It was unfair and unjust that they should have been blamed for that decision. The second lesson is that the veterans were sent into a toxic environment. There were inadequate provisions for taking account of the dangers and the risks to their health and check-ups before and after. I am pleased to advise the member that the modern New Zealand Defence Force is far more attuned to the needs of veterans in checking and warning veterans and in ensuring that when people come back from deployment they receive full medical check-ups.