English Bill: Ministerial Statements — Iraq—New Zealand Assistance 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
English Bill: Ministerial Statements — Iraq—New Zealand Assistance 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6041. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 The National Opposition supports this deployment. Our New Zealand troops will do a great job where a great job is needed. They will be practical they will get on with the local people they will get the job done and they deserve the support of this Parliament in setting out into a situation that has to be regarded as potentially dangerous for them. But that will not change the view of Helen Clark and her Government as being an unreliable friend and as being a Government that was willing to get stuck into our friends and allies when it suited the Government’s domestic political purposes. 
This is a significant contribution but it is one where Helen Clark has been able to make her motives look opportunist and insincere. This is a further chapter in months of ducking and weaving as the Government tried to cultivate anti-American sentiment in New Zealand and at the same time to build international support for Helen Clark’s own future career in the United Nations. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Prime Minister was heard in silence; so will the Leader of the Opposition be. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government has set out to try to repair the damage done to our national interests and our international standing by 3 months of bad judgments misjudged pride and comments that have been damaging to—and were taken as damaging by—our friends and allies. It started with the comments on the Al Gore presidency and culminated with Phil Goff holding hands with Arafat just when everyone else was getting the road map on the road. 
This deployment is also a U-turn on the Government’s previous policy. Government members have lectured this House on the principles involved in their foreign policy. On 25 March Helen Clark said that New Zealand would make no contribution to Iraq unless the United Nations was in control. The United Nations is not in control. These troops will be under the control of the British army which was to use the Government’s term an invading force and is now an occupying power in Iraq. So where is the principle in that? New Zealand is committing troops to the control of what the UN resolution calls the authority that is the US and the UK. The Prime Minister also said that we would offer only cash and other humanitarian aid as long as the US looked as though it was going to set up its own military bureaucracy to run Iraq which is exactly what it has done. The language changed to “multilateral cover” which is another “Clarkism”—one-third truth and two-thirds spin. Now we have a total back-down: the commitment of our troops under the control of the occupying armies of Britain and the US. 
Finally was there a deal? Well when Dr Cullen raises his eyebrows that always means yes. I understand that this decision was conveyed to the US Government 2 weeks ago. The first question is this: why was the New Zealand Parliament not informed 2 weeks ago when it could have been instead of now? Secondly was it the case that—[ 
Interruption 
] Well I believe it was the case. New Zealand offered troops—a significant contribution and more than could have been expected—in return for complimentary statements from the State Department. This is the Government that was not to be pushed around. This is the Government that was not to let the US make its foreign policy and was not to be told what to do by someone who had illegally invaded another country. Yet the Government has been virtually told what to do and that is to make a significant contribution to post-war Iraq. The Government did have to do that and Helen Clark went and did it. 
Our position has been clear since the day that the war ended. We said that New Zealand should take part as quickly as possible in the rebuilding of Iraq. This announcement is too late. It should have been done months ago.