Goff Phil: Debate On Pacific IssuesText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoff Phil: Debate On Pacific Issues[Sitting date: 18 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9565. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill): To the delegates who are gathered here from more than 18 countries across the Pacific a warm welcome to Aotearoa New Zealand. The waters of the Pacific lap the shores of all of our countries and bring together our peoples from diverse ethnicities cultures and languages. All of us with the exception of maybe the big island to the west of New Zealand are small island States facing the challenges of remoteness and a lack of economies of scale. We know that we can better meet those challenges working together rather than as separate countries and that is why we are gathered here this weekend to look at those challenges to work together to learn from each other to talk together and to find solutions that will make life better for all of the peoples of the Pacific.Our countries share not only our Pacific location but also the bonds of history of culture of family and of trade. You have already heard that this country was first shaped by people from the Pacific a millennium ago—the tangata whenua of this country the Māori people. Then it was shaped by the Europeans from whom we gained many of our institutions.We are being influenced today by other diverse ethnicities from Asia but I want to pay particular tribute to those who came to our country from the Pacific 50 and 60 years ago and ever since because it is the migration from the Pacific that has helped shaped the identity that we have as New Zealanders which is different from other countries from which we draw our heritage. I want to thank the peoples of the Pacific for the hard work that they put into building our country and our economy and for the huge contribution that they make on the sporting fields of New Zealand and to the culture of this country that enriches us and makes us stronger.The Pacific is the area where New Zealand as a small country can make the greatest difference and where we can make the greatest contribution. That is why I am pleased that well over half of the development assistance that we can provide goes directly tothe Pacific. But there are other things that we can do as well. One of the initiatives that we worked on when I was in Government was the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme a scheme that is of real benefit to New Zealand but also to the people from your countries because it provides work and it provides resources that they can take back to their families and their communities.But there are other things as well and I want to pay special tribute to our Defence Force and our police force. In both of those forces we see the marked influence of Māori members and Pasifika members. Those forces have helped at times of natural disasters such as the tsunami and the cyclones. They have helped to protect our resources the fishery resources—and I say “our” meaning the resources of the Pacific—from those from other countries who would plunder it. They have helped in search and rescue and I want to pay particular credit to them for the work that they have done in places like the Solomons and in Tonga and in Timor-Leste—if I class that as part of the Pacific—in peacekeeping. The particular tribute I pay to our forces is that they regard themselves as equals with the people where they serve overseas.I want to make another special tribute and that is to the defence force that we used as a Government from the 1970s to run our flag up and protest against the people from the United States from Britain from France and elsewhere who tested their dirty nuclear weapons in our Pacific Ocean. We have fought together alongside each other as Pacific nations to bring a Pacific that is finally free of nuclear weapon testing but sadly not free of the consequences the pollution that those things caused.The Pacific faces huge challenges—economically socially environmentally and politically. But we should not be daunted by our problems; we should be inspired and motivated by what we can make of the Pacific as the most beautiful region in the world. In 2011 when the forum leaders met in Auckland they talked about their vision for the Pacific—the Pacific as a region of peace and harmony security and economic prosperity the Pacific where people could lead free and worthwhile lives a place where we could celebrate together our diversity and value the cultures the traditions and the religious beliefs of all.The forum sets some ambitions for us in the Pacific that we should become a region respected for the quality of our governance where we should be respected for the sustainable management of our resources and our environment where we should fully observe democratic values and be respected for the defence and promotion of human rights. We fall short of that vision but we should be inspired and we should be motivated in the days ahead to work out ways to make that vision the reality for our place in the Pacific to create an environment that is sound and sustainable.Two of the areas where we have the greatest comparative advantage are in fisheries and in tourism. Both rely on the proper management of our environment. I am also conscious that it is the small islands of the Pacific that do little to cause the problem of global warming but as countries will be the first victims of that process. I have been in Tuvalu and I have been in the Marshall Islands where the leaders of those countries have said to me “Frankly our people could become the first environmental refugees in the world.” It is beholden on countries like New Zealand and Australia to not oppose the stand that the Pacific takes to stop the process of global warming but to get alongside the Pacific to work with and support the Pacific in those objectives.I want to talk also about development in the Pacific that benefits not simply the elite but all of the people. Our goal in development assistance as a Government was to eliminate poverty. It covered many areas. The Government today talks about sustainable economic development. That is an important goal but it is not the only goal and we need to ensure that in the process of supporting sustainable economic development thebenefits of that development go to the people as a whole and not simply to those who already control wealth and power.I want to talk about trading relationships because I have worked on deals for the Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement and the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations and I want to make this commitment. They are trading arrangements that must work for mutual benefit and must also address the huge imbalances in trade between our countries. We must give back to the Pacific because we take so much from it in terms of trade.I want to talk finally about the role that strong democracy and good governance can play. We need not necessarily a Westminster model—that might not be the particular model of democracy for the Pacific. It may be something that embeds better in your local culture and traditions. But whatever model is used the basic foundation stones of democracy must be supported and enhanced—openness and transparency—because that is how you deal with the problems of corruption. We need honesty. We need integrity. We do not need self-serving corruption. We need a free media in every one of our countries—not media subject to censorship. We need the rule of law—where no New Zealander and no person in the Pacific is above the law. In our country a Prime Minister was taken to task for speeding in a police convoy. Many people in the world regard that as odd but it was a sign that New Zealanders say that everybody is under the law regardless of the circumstances.We also need to acknowledge the role of political parties not set out in constitutions which is that they are the glue that holds the system together to make it work properly and also the legitimate role of opposition.There is much that we will talk about in the coming days. Once again welcome to our country. It is good to have you here. You are our closest friends and we look forward to working together with you. Thank you very much.