Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): I'd like to add my thanks to the Minister not only for the leadership he's shown in this discussion and work but also in mentioning those famous words from our 32nd Prime Minister the Rt Hon David Lange when he said I can smell the uranium on your breath."It was a defining moment for New Zealand. It wasn't just a quip from a Prime Minister that was known to be intellectual and witty but it also put the world on notice about our nuclear-free stance. The reason that he was able to win that debate despite attending against all the diplomatic advice and despite competing against somebody—a reverend—whose whole persona was based on moral authority was because it was the right side of the argument. New Zealand was morally correct and we need to stay there. As has been said today that moment has shaped our culture. It is extremely relevant now as we have the doomsday clock still sitting at I believe 100 seconds before midnight showing the prescient danger of nuclear weapons still currently to our world.I won't go into why I believe the world order is under threat; I believe that has been well-canvased in the House. But I do think New Zealand also needs to step back and look at our own actions particularly around our relationships in the Pacific and this is under Governments of both stripes after the Fijian coup in 2006 where we did give Fiji the cold shoulder. We may feel we have moved on but I think that is still a present sentiment for the Fijians and has meant that since then we've all had a lot of work to do. Should tensions arise in the Pacific again it's something we need to bear in mind: managed dialogue in my view is always better than completely cutting off especially from those who are friends to us.We've talked about the two treaties and how important they are. I'd just like to mention and add my thanks to the officials and my observation just from work I've done in international fora prior to this role about how good New Zealand is at working those rooms at being an independent convener having respectful discussions and a lot of that has been around our independent foreign policy. I think we heard in our chair's contribution that New Zealand is a member of several coalitions that were able to conduct negotiations and discussions at these international meetings. That is a real leadership role that we can continue to play punching above our weight and despite our size. In order to do that we do need to keep our independent voice. Our position is different on this issue from some of our Five Eyes partners but it can cut through in the convening process. The other comment I would just make is that our unequivocal stance around stockpiling also mentioned by the ACT Party is that as long there are nuclear weapons—any nuclear weapons—the threat remains. It is not an arena where there is a diminished threat by the number; as long as there is one weapon around that threat remains because the devastation is so utterly impactful.My closing remarks are really just looking at Antarctica. There is another treaty that we are a party to in Antarctica and there are countries who have nuclear weapons that also have bases there and are doing scientific research. I think it behoves us to ensure that all the research is scientific; I'm thinking particularly here around the presence of NASA and also the Communist Party of China with its station in Kunlun Russia in Vostok. They are hard to reach New Zealand may not have the resources to get there but we can influence our partners to ensure that the credibility of that treaty remains for all partners by having those independent investigations.We also do need to consider what that Antarctic geopolitical piece of land means in terms of the region that we occupy with our Pacific friends and some of the geopolitics in this area. On that note I'm really pleased that we're in the process of a $306 million capital upgrade to Scott Base in order to secure the credibility that we have with our friends there.As we've heard the time for action is now. Russia's actions may be a threat but they also present an opportunity for us to do something in the world to really show the leadership that we did back in 1985. I'm so pleased that we have such an energetic Minister who is leading that; the bipartisan approach is the right one. I really look forward to seeing progress around nuclear States coming together to discuss what they can do as they are accountable."