English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6047. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
1. Hon BILL ENGLISH (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does she stand by her reported comments on 25 March that New Zealand will not provide peacekeepers in Iraq unless the United States hands over control to the United Nations; if not why not? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I stand by comments I actually made rather than distorted reports. I have consistently said that New Zealand was prepared to help at the end of the conflict provided there was appropriate multilateral cover; now there is in the form of Resolution 1483. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why did the New Zealand Government support UN Resolution 1483 which recognised that British and American defence forces as occupying powers with authority in Iraq and ensured that the United Nations would not be in charge when the stated policy of the New Zealand Government was that the UN should be in charge not the US? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The stated policy of the New Zealand Government has always been to see that there was a vital role for the UN. It was clear that that was a widespread international view. We worked with others to get a very good resolution—and it is a good resolution—and we have now been able to deploy in line with it. 
David Benson-Pope 
: When did the Prime Minister first mention the possibility of sending engineers to assist with the reconstruction of Iraq? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I and the Government generally have consistently foreshadowed New Zealand’s involvement in the rebuilding of post-conflict Iraq. In respect of engineers as far back as 6 February this year I was reported as saying that we would be joining an international effort for humanitarian aid medical support and the kind of work our army engineers could do. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Does the Prime Minister recall saying—as is reported in the  
Dominion Post  
by Tracey Watkins on 25 March—that New Zealand will not provide peacekeepers unless the United States hands over control to the United Nations; if so does she agree that the United States has handed over control or alternatively that New Zealand has changed its policy—which is it? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: As the member well knows those words are not in quotation marks; they are an introduction to a  
Dominion Post 
 article. They are not the words used. 
Keith Locke 
: When the Government decided to provide additional aid to Iraq—about $12 million worth—why did it not decide to channel that aid through civilian agencies rather than to put our army people in a British military unit when the British-American occupation of Iraq is increasingly hated by the Iraqi people? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The Government looked at a range of options whereby it could assist and it determined that at this point apart from the agriculture commitment—which the member commented on favourably earlier—the most appropriate and practical assistance with rebuilding could be offered by army engineers. 
Ron Mark 
: In respect of the deployment of New Zealand troops to Iraq what sort of risk analysis has been done on the likely situation that our troops may well find themselves in given the existing situation inside Iraq and has she already considered whether we might send in armed troops if the situation deteriorates to ensure that our engineers are well protected? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The member may have heard the Chief of Defence Force commenting earlier today on that issue. He made it clear that the engineers would be able to protect themselves. They are not going in as combat troops but as engineers. They are all army service people and as the member knows from his own extensive experience they do go prepared to protect themselves. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Was the decision to deploy New Zealand personnel made by the New Zealand Government in the form of an offer to the United States and the United Kingdom through the United Nations or was it in response to an invitation from those States coming the other way for us to make assistance available? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: A number of processes have been at work here. Obviously we have been very engaged with the UN on the shape of the resolution. We are also very mindful of the range of tasks that are to be done. When senior Government Ministers met on the afternoon of Monday the 27th of last month to talk about the range of possibilities we elected to approach the British Government because when I had been in Britain a few weeks before it had been very keen to see us play a role and we made it clear at that point that we would do so when there was appropriate authority as we were sure there would be. In respect of the US we knew what the range of things was that it was thinking of in both Afghanistan and Iraq and we have had a continuing dialogue with it. 
Hon Bill English 
: Given the Prime Minister’s rather startling claim that all reports of her policy up until today have been wrong what words did she actually say that led to this reported comment: “New Zealand will not provide peacekeepers unless the United States hands over control to the United Nations.”? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The member knows that those words were not used. They are intros and hyping up. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I seek the leave of the House to table three comments from three senior members of the press gallery Mr Colin Espiner John Armstrong and Tracey Watkins in the Christchurch  
Press 
 the  
New Zealand Herald 
 and the  
Dominion Post 
 all of the 25th and all completely contradicting what the Prime Minister has just told the House. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table those three documents. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon Bill English 
: Given that the Prime Minister did not answer the last question about what she actually said and therefore what her policy actually was is it because she cannot remember or because she is now going to rewrite history about the Government’s policy that New Zealand will not provide peacekeepers unless the US hands over control to the United Nations? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: In case the member has not noticed we have not provided peacekeepers. We have provided engineers.