Kedgley Sue: Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 Like all other parties in the House the Green Party will be supporting the Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill. Members can call me old-fashioned but I am not someone who celebrates or regards as a great victory the fact that this legislation will allow and perhaps encourage women into active combat roles in the armed forces. I do not see this as some huge victory or human right. I think it is sad that we send women or indeed men into active combat roles in the Army but sadly that is the reality of our world today. 
The Green Party acknowledges that if we want women in the armed forces and we welcome the fact that they are there it does not seem right that they be excluded from combat roles providing as the previous speaker Ron Mark has said that they are not obligated to go into those combat roles but rather that it is a choice. 
 We also acknowledge that women are playing a significant role in our armed forces. We hope the role they play will be even more significant in time. As the previous speaker has already pointed out at the moment only 16.7 percent of regular forces are made up of servicewomen. But we have some significant examples of servicewomen in this House. Heather Roy and I did not realise Dr Jackie Blue have played their part and contributed in the armed forces. In particular women have been making a fantastic contribution in peacekeeping roles particularly in the Pacific. We really celebrate the fact that women are undertaking work in peacekeeping all around the world. We think that is fantastic. If women therefore want to go on and put themselves into combat forces we will support that choice even though we are sad that they are required to make such a choice. 
If we are going to send women into active combat roles in the front line of our armed forces and in the Navy and so forth we will have to provide greater protection for women in those situations. There is some accountability from our Government if we are going to send them there. I am thinking in particular of the terrible tragedy that has befallen many of our armed forces who were exposed to Agent Orange in the Viet Nam War and who have been exposed to other problems such as carcinogens in other combat roles. We know that women are particularly vulnerable to things like Agent Orange and to chemicals and pesticides and that these can be passed down to future generations through the foetus. So I think that if we are going to send women into the front line we will have to make sure we do not expose them and future generations to unknown risks and hazards. We will have to take that very much into account when we send them. 
Our troops have already been exposed to depleted uranium in the Middle East and I think possibly in Afghanistan as well— 
Ron Mark 
: Kosovo. 
SUE KEDGLEY 
:—and in Kosovo as Ron Mark is pointing out to me. We know that if just one tiny tiny fragment of depleted uranium goes into someone’s body that can result in horrendous birth deformities and horrendous health problems for the rest of that person’s life. I do not want to expose any woman in New Zealand—or for that matter any man—to substances such as depleted uranium. I want us to learn the lessons from the exposure of our armed services to Agent Orange and to make sure we do not send our women—or for that matter our men—into combat zones where their future and the future generations of New Zealanders will be irrevocably affected by exposure to things like depleted uranium and Agent Orange. With those concerns I express the Green Party’s support for this bill.