Jones Dail: Visiting Forces Bill — Second Reading 
Jones Dail: Visiting Forces Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:12816] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 I note the enthusiasm of other members including Mr Simon Power to take a call but knowing the way in which procedures work I am only too pleased to accept the fact that New Zealand First is now to take the call. 
The previous Labour Minister who spoke wanted to know quite a few things and members of this House would like to know why it is that the Labour Prime Minister wishes to release confidential notes of important defence discussions held between the Leader of the National Opposition and representatives of the United States. If we are asking in order to find out about various things we could ask on what basis this Labour Government breaches long-time conventions and discloses confidential discussions. That would be a very interesting thing to find out. We will all be looking forward to the release of the total sum of documents when Mr Goff finally comes back to New Zealand and we will see whether he decides to release that information. 
Of course it takes quite a bit of cheek on the part of the previous speaker Mr Tamihere to speak on defence. He is the person who wants to see the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in Whenuapai closed down and replaced by a commercial airport with no regard for the people in the Whenuapai area. He is the person who is willing to see defence run down—absolutely entirely. He is the person who wants to see all our defence personnel located in one spot at Ohakea in the central North Island so that if anyone ever wanted to take out the New Zealand Defence Force there would be only one place to have a go at which would be Ohakea. Most people who have any idea about defence would believe that defence personnel should be located at two places at least rather than at one place thus letting everyone have just one shot—which is Mr Tamihere’s viewpoint expressed by the relocation at Ohakea. 
Of course what Mr Tamihere supports is the Quigley report which was put together by the National Party and the Labour Party and which is something that New Zealand First views with a great deal of disapproval. We want to see defence improved and we want to see more money spent on defence. I take the point raised in Mr Tamihere’s speech when he asked where the money would come from. We have never been so well off in New Zealand as we are today yet in the past we were able to find the money to have new Orions new Hercules craft and new Skyhawks. Now there is absolutely very little in the air at all and nothing new. There are a few helicopters but of course they cannot reach the ships on which they are supposed to be based when they come into New Zealand because the helicopters are in Auckland and the ships are further south. That is quite a disaster in defence terms in so far as the Labour Party is concerned. 
We have seen defence run down under successive Labour and National Governments but New Zealand First which was congratulated on its defence policy at the last election will be ensuring that the defence policy is even better at the next election and that defence will be improved as a result of a New Zealand First Party being in Government. Of course all of that has very little to do with this bill. The debate has wandered far and wide with the support of the House so I felt I should take a few moments to refer to those points 
The Visiting Forces Bill has the unanimous approval I believe of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. We appreciate the efforts made by the New Zealand Law Society in making suggestions for amendments to the bill and by and large those amendments have been accepted. This bill will update New Zealand’s law in relation to visiting forces by amending the provisions of the original Visiting Forces Act that has been in place since the outset of World War II. That will mean that New Zealand’s law in this regard is consistent with international law and practice relating to status of forces agreements concluded with other States. Specifically it will allow the status of forces agreement negotiated with Australia in 1998 to be finally ratified. 
This Government has been in power since 1999 and this bill is a simple little bill so it shows how little the Government cares for defence that a small bill like this—which did not take terribly long to draft and which will not take terribly long in this House—should have taken so long. The Labour Government came into power in 1999. The bill was probably sitting around in draft form then and 5 years later it is only just getting to this stage. The bill took only 1 hour and 55 minutes to be considered before the select committee. One would have thought that the Government if it had any regard for defence would have brought this matter to the House before today. The Government really has little regard for defence at all. It pays lip service to it and does an inadequate amount in so far as improving our defence capabilities. As far as the bill itself is concerned New Zealand First supports it.