Prebble Richard: Ministerial Statements — Iraq—New Zealand Assistance 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Prebble Richard: Ministerial Statements — Iraq—New Zealand Assistance 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6043. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (Leader—ACT NZ) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the ACT party to say to our defence personnel who are going on what is a risky mission that they go with the support of the New Zealand Parliament and I am sure the vast majority of New Zealanders. The ACT party supports this deployment. I have to support it because I wrote to the Prime Minister on 28 March stating: “This letter is to urge you to urgently reconsider your policy of refusing to assist in humanitarian aid to Iraq unless it is under United Nations control.” I am delighted to see that the Prime Minister has changed that policy. What I am not delighted to see is that she has not admitted it. I find it interesting that— 
Hon Member 
: Ah! 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: The Prime Minister says that was always her policy. That is interesting because on 24 March  
The Dominion Post 
 must have misunderstood. It stated: “Prime Minister Helen Clark says New Zealand’s contribution to post-war Iraq will be in cash rather than peacekeeping forces or other expertise because the United States plans its own military bureaucracy to run Iraq in the short term”—as it is doing. The  
New Zealand Herald 
 was under the same misapprehension because it reported that the Prime Minister had ruled out contributing personnel to the United States - organised peacekeeping force operating in Iraq after the war. I see the 
 Press 
 made that mistake as well. It reported the Prime Minister as saying: “New Zealand will be not taking part in rebuilding a post-war Iraq unless the effort is under the auspices of the United Nations. We are looking for the UN to be prominently engaged and at this point the UN does not have a clear role.” It still does not have a clear role. Another newspaper reported the same comments: “New Zealand will not provide peacekeepers unless the United States hands over control to the United Nations.” I ask the Prime Minister whether that has happened. 
Hon Member 
: Yes. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: Hello somebody said yes! Who in the Labour Party was told that in his or her caucus? Government members will not own up. Mr Phil Goff was asked a question that was reported in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 by Fran O’Sullivan who must also have misunderstood what he said— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: She does it constantly. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: That is interesting because she had to put quotation marks around it. This is what she said: “Asked whether there were any circumstances in which New Zealand would take a peacekeeping role in a bridging sense if the US was there Mr Goff replied: “In the first instance you’ll have a direct military rule and we won’t be offering peacekeeping forces’.’’ Mr Goff now says that he was misunderstood as well. I think we are entitled to have the Government tell us in a ministerial statement what it is really doing. The Leader of the Opposition is absolutely right. The Government is doing it in order to have some diplomatic and trade advantage. I think the Government needs to apologise to the Australians. We all remember Helen Clark and Phil Goff saying: “We would never send over troops for trade” but now they are doing that. This was their statement: “New Zealand’s position is strong support for multilateralism the rule of law and upholding the authority of the Security Council. It is a principled position.” But where is the Security Council in terms of this Prime Minister? 
Rodney Hide 
: Where is the principle? 
Hon RICHARD 
PREBBLE 
: That is a very good question. I am delighted to see that the Government is joining the real world but why does it not have the decency to say to Parliament that it was wrong? This House should realise that this commitment might be a very long-term one. We have had peacekeepers serving overseas I understand since the 1950s. If we had actually contributed to the war in Iraq we would be able to say: “We’ve done our bit. Let someone else do it.” 
I also say to the Prime Minister that we have bits of things that we should be doing ourselves. I regret that she did not include anything in her statement about the Solomons. That is an area in our sphere; that country has been asking us for help for over a decade and I would hate to think that we cannot give it because the Prime Minister has committed all our troops to the Middle East.