Turei Metiria: Ministerial Statements — Islamic State Conflict—Government ResponseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Ministerial Statements — Islamic State Conflict—Government Response[Sitting date: 05 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:612. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. The Green Party stands for peace and for freedom. Peace is the best weapon that we have in achieving personal security. It is a simple fact that New Zealanders are safest in a peaceful world. Our democracy is only as strong as our personal freedoms. When personal freedoms are eroded our democracy is weakened.Today John Key has eroded our quest for peace both at home and abroad and has eroded New Zealanders’ personal freedoms. By offering support to the US-led war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) he leads us into part of a strategy that reduces the prospects of enduring peace in the Middle East and in the process we are also being told we have to give up freedoms here at home. That is a lose-lose strategy.We believe that reduced international and national security the erosion of civil liberties in New Zealand and the introduction of the politics of fear into our national debate is much too high a price to pay for involvement in the US-led efforts against ISIS. The Green Party stands for an entirely different approach. We believe there is a better alternative. Rather than yet again pursuing the tried and failed approach of military incursion into the Middle East resulting in increased radicalism and surges in terrorist activity we should instead lead efforts that result in genuine peace and security.This is the test that we would apply to our Government’s actions. Does our course of action lead to peace abroad and greater security at home and does our course of action strengthen or weaken personal liberties? It is our view that the approach set out by John Key today takes us further from peace and weakens our democracy. We stand for peace overseas that delivers freedom at home.New Zealand has a rightfully proud record of trying to do the right thing in the world. The value of our independent and principled foreign policy was recently highlighted by the trust placed in us by those countries that supported us in the United Nations Security Council bid. When needed and when right we have not been afraid to roll up our sleeves and work with others to achieve lasting peace in the world. Sometimes this has meant dying alongside other countries. But ever since the war in Viet Nam we have learnt to question our involvement in the wars that our traditional allies have entered into around the globe. We have been better off for this questioning approach. The 10-year war that followed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 we wisely stayed out of. It was the right thing to do. That war ended inconclusively at great cost to both the US and Iraq and played a big part perversely in the rise of ISIS.Supporting war whether directly with boots on the ground or through other actions is one of the most important decisions that we as a nation can ever make. It is our view that through our intelligence-gathering activities and support for US-led efforts New Zealand is part of the American war effort. What John Key has set out is New Zealand’s clear support for those fighting the war with ISIS.Today the Green Party is clear in its position. We do not support any form of military engagement with the war effort. This includes training support for the Iraqi army. Regardless of how the Government seeks to frame it the reality is that any military assistance is a contribution to the war effort. It is our view that the war effort will not result in peace. It is a strategy without an end point and has a low chance of success. It is a myth that Western intervention can destroy ISIS. A war will not solve what is at heart sectarianism in Iraq.Ten years of war waged by America could not solve the tensions that divide Sunni and Shi’a Iraqis or divide extremists from the moderates so how will this time be any different? Even an intensive decades-long American ground effort something that is politically not on the table might only make the problem worse. ISIS’s presence in Iraq and Syria is fundamentally a political problem not a military one. Doug Ollivant national security adviser for Iraq from 2005 to 2009 told Vox Media: “I take the somewhat modest position that the actions of 6 million Iraqis may be more important than those of 30000 troops and one very talented general”.The world can defeat ISIS and build a lasting peace. We in the Greens are committed to this outcome but there are better ways to achieve it. There are better ways to achieve it than through military Western intervention.The Green Party strongly supports a commitment to additional humanitarian aid in the region and a commitment to finding an enduring political solution to the war in the Middle East especially now that we are in the key position to do so on the Security Council. By contributing humanitarian aid New Zealand can demonstrate that our primary concern is for the needs of the victims particularly children. By contributing our independent foreign diplomacy at the UN New Zealand can demonstrate our commitment to collective peace and security the only real long-term solution to the horror of war and terrorism. If New Zealand wants to make a difference on the Security Council by going in clean we will be more credible advocates for finding a political solution in the Middle East.Any military deployment in the Middle East will undermine our peace and security here at home. Although this is not a compelling reason on its own to avoid engaging in conflicts around the world where it is just and the outcome will be lasting this US-led war against ISIS does not justify those costs that we will bear here at home.Rather than eroding our civil liberties it is now time to strengthen our tolerant and free democratic society. Rather than shutting down it is now time to open up. Let us look at what enlightened leaders are doing to reduce the risk posed by foreign fighters rather than rely on the failed policies of the Abbott Government in Australia. Joining the US-led war in the Middle East is already increasing the climate of fear back here at home. We saw it in the Prime Minister’s speech today and in his recent statements. Fear pervades the drip-feeding of allegations that raise suspicions about our neighbours and others who share our community. Fear is the tried and true playbook of those who seek to build artificial walls between us.The Green Party rejects becoming a nation of fear. Fear is the breeding ground for intolerance violence and the slow sure erosion of our own hard-fought-for rights freedoms and duties to one another.Today John Key announced the erosion of a few more of our rights as citizens. There will be $7 million of funding for our secret services increased scope for the State to cancel New Zealanders’ passports and most problematically the expansion of video surveillance by the SIS without the prior need for a warrant. The continual encroachment of the surveillance State here in our home is part and parcel of the commitment to the war on terror abroad. War abroad and spying here at home are two sides of the same coin. Our police already have extensive and sufficient powers to pre-empt an investigation into crime that is being planned here in Aotearoa New Zealand. We have no clear evidence for more. We will not stand by and watch New Zealand become another paranoid society—one where our secret services have even greater powers to spy on us one where our freedoms are progressively withdrawn and one where spending on security becomes a higher priority than the crisis of New Zealand’s child poverty.Today I speak on behalf of a truly independent foreign policy that works for peace as the best form of security—a foreign policy that aligns foreign and domestic interests. I speak on behalf of our personal freedoms. I put them on a pedestal to be eroded only in the most extreme of cases. I speak on behalf of those New Zealanders who believe in alternatives to war and fear and those who aspire to genuine peace and freedom. Thank you.