Gallagher Martin: InquiryInquiries — Inquiry into New Zealand's Relationship with Latin America Consideration of Report of Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee 
Gallagher Martin: InquiryInquiries — Inquiry into New Zealand's Relationship with Latin America Consideration of Report of Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee 
[Volume:629;Page:1863] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 I thank the previous speaker for his contribution and acknowledge his degree of expertise in and contribution to this area before coming to Parliament. 
It was my privilege and pleasure to be a member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee in the previous Parliament. I want to acknowledge the very good work of the Hon Peter Dunne as chair of the committee and also Graham Kelly before he went to Canada. I acknowledge the very great work of Winnie Laban who of course is now the Hon Winnie Laban as deputy chair. 
In terms of the brief I believe that the inquiry we conducted into our relationship with Latin America was very worthwhile. It was a very good example of the way a parliamentary select committee can genuinely contribute to the debate and also if you like raise the consciousness of New Zealanders to the critical relationship that we have with Latin America and to the potential for that relationship. Certainly if we were to cite an example of a very successful organisation in terms of our relationship with South-east Asia that of course would be the Asia 2000 Foundation. Interestingly because of various circumstances historically we have had a very strong and interconnected relationship with for example the ASEAN nations which has not perhaps been duplicated to the same degree with Latin America. Of course in terms of neighbours and without repeating some very basic geography South America—Latin America—is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean and shares with us the Pacific Rim. 
I just want to take this opportunity to focus on two aspects. I listened very closely to the previous speaker’s outline. It is appreciated that New Zealand as a small country with a small population cannot have a comprehensive diplomatic presence in every country. We have to be very focused and circumspect in terms of how we allocate our resources as a smaller country. Certainly first of all we should naturally acknowledge the posts we do have in Latin America and the huge range of nations and communities that they themselves have to cover. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the role of honorary consuls. I acknowledge—and I know that my colleagues on this side of the House will totally support me—all those people around the world and in Latin America as well who work as honorary consuls. That is where I think we can get value of coverage for a relatively small budget. 
Finally I also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the contribution that our resident Latin American community can make to this relationship. I acknowledge the role that our local Latin American community has played in my own city in terms of that relationship and my good colleague Dianne Yates who is now chair of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee will agree. I think we need to acknowledge the expertise that that community has to contribute to the relationship. 
I will not say any more except to compliment the previous committee on its good work. I believe that this is a very very good contribution to the ongoing relationship between New Zealand and the Latin American nations.