Dunne Peter: Urgent Debates — Solomon Islands—Deployment of Police and Military Forces  
Dunne Peter: Urgent Debates — Solomon Islands—Deployment of Police and Military Forces  
[Volume:609;Page:6705] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
:  
The litany of the history of the Solomons from the time of the start of the struggle between the Malaitan people and the people of Guadalcanal has been well canvassed this afternoon. This is not really the time for us to enter into a debate about the rights and wrongs of what happened when and who did what to whom. It is time for us simply to recognise that that country is on the point of economic and social collapse that it is in our region our part of the world and that it is in the sphere of influence we may claim as our own. The question then becomes this: what role if any should we as a sovereign nation with a history of seeking to uphold good Government in our own country and elsewhere play in response to that situation? That is the background I believe against which the House debates this matter this afternoon. May I note in passing the appropriateness of this debate today at this time given that when a similar debate was sought in 2000 it was ruled that it could not occur until such time as an intervention took place. On that basis we would not have debated World War II until the first shot was fired. It is appropriate that we debate this issue in the House today. 
 This debate immediately raises the question of the status of New Zealand’s decision. If one listened to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in question time this afternoon one heard there has actually been no decision by the New Zealand Government at this stage. There has been an indication in principle given at the Foreign Ministers meeting in Sydney yesterday of the type of commitment that New Zealand may make in response to an invitation from the Parliament of the Solomon Islands. However I was struck by the fact that this afternoon the Minister said in response to my question that the New Zealand Cabinet has not yet decided formally on its position. The first step to be taken is that the decision in principle made yesterday in the context of the Foreign Ministers meeting in Sydney obviously needs to be considered by the New Zealand Cabinet and endorsed and then we await the invitation from the Parliament of the Solomon Islands which from memory is due on about 7 or 8 July before the deployment can even begin. People who may fear there is a rush to judgment going on here should bear that time frame in mind. There will not be a precipitate deployment. 
The next issue that arises is the nature of the deployment itself. Arguments have been raised in the House this afternoon about whether we can afford—if we are sending 30 police officers and a couple of hundred military personnel to support them—such a level of deployment given some of the pressures at home. I think that is a very reasonable question. I for one am not convinced that we can give satisfactory answers to it at this stage. I know in my own electorate—and I do not want to dwell on this unduly—there are problems with community policing. One the one hand it will be difficult to tell people to endure their problems while on the other we are sending police to sort out the difficulties in the Solomons. There are matters relating to the level of recruitment for the armed forces at the moment both in terms of the regular forces and the territorial forces. Those issues will come back into play as a result of a decision that may be made to send a force to the Solomons. But I say that important though those considerations are—and they should not be overlooked—in my view they are not of themselves reasons for New Zealand not to seek to play a role. They are excuses that can be offered as to why we should not play a role but they are not reasons that we should not play a role if we value our role as a good international citizen. 
If I may hark back to the debate this House held a couple of months ago regarding Iraq—and I am not trying to make a political point here so no member should assume that I am—at that time the debate was over whether New Zealand should play a role in that conflict because as a good international citizen it was its responsibility to do so. The counter-argument was raised that that event was some considerable distance away from New Zealand and that we had limited supply lines and difficulties in meeting those needs etc. I think all those arguments become more difficult to sustain in respect of something that is going on in our own region. That is why I think it is appropriate for New Zealand to give support to a prospective deployment to the Solomons. 
But there are some bigger issues here. Mr Prebble alluded to some of them and they require some expansion. This is not just an issue about the impenetrability of jungle or about warlords or about the breakdown of law and order. Important though those things are this is an issue about the lack of economic viability of many small Pacific States and about that lack of viability giving rise to the instability that we see exemplified in the Solomons but by no means isolated to that country. It is a chilling fact that over the last 30 years some $50 billion in cumulative overseas aid has been pumped into the Island States in the Pacific yet their net positive economic growth rate in that time has been around 1 percent. There are lessons for all of us in respect of that process. If we want to uplift the standard of living and to promote the level of democracy and security then very clearly the developed world has to do much better than has been its record to date. 
We also need to look at our processes of engagement. In this particular instance the potential decision has arisen out of an initiative by the Foreign Ministers of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting it would appear under the joint convenorship of our Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Foreign Minister in Sydney yesterday. That initiative is to be applauded but it is essentially an ad hoc one. There is the Biketawa Declaration and there are the processes of the Pacific Islands Forum. They need to be refined more thoroughly in order to ensure that we can become involved in situations as they develop and not very much as an ad hoc afterthought as I think is potentially the case at the moment. 
When the New Zealand Government does make a decision it is important that those who are deployed to the Solomons go with the knowledge that the Parliament and people of this country support them. As I have said on the occasion of other such deployments they go not as the representatives of a particular Government but as the representatives of the people of New Zealand and therefore they are entitled to know that when they go they have the support of the people of New Zealand. They will go into what will be very difficult and stressful circumstances in the Solomons and I do not imagine that any member of this House would willingly trade places with any of those forces to be so deployed. 
On behalf of United Future I say that like other parties we join in supporting the intention for New Zealand to play a role in attempting to restore law and order to the Solomons. We recognise the huge difficulties that that of itself involves but we acknowledge also that this deployment is only part of a wider process to put in place better ways for the States of the South-west Pacific to work collaboratively and constructively together so as to ensure that in our sphere of influence the rising arc of instability that has been occurring in recent times can be diminished and the collective peace and security of all of us can be ensured.