te Heuheu Georgina: Crimes and Misconduct (Overseas Operations) Bill — First Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Crimes and Misconduct (Overseas Operations) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7582] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (NZ National) 
: 
 The member who has just resumed her seat is new in the House and I will give her a little bit of advice: she should not be so cheeky to senior members of this House because it is likely that in 18 months she will not be a member anyway. 
The Government whip is right about one thing—for a change. He said that this bill is about intervention in the Solomon Islands and he is right. The bill makes provision for bringing under the purview of New Zealand jurisdiction those officers of ours who have been committed to the Solomon Islands and who are not already covered by the provisions that normally cover members of the Defence Force—namely the police. I want to commend the speech made by my colleague Tony Ryall because although it is all very nice that we are sending our police over to the Solomon Islands at the same time the Government should make sure that we have sufficient police to tackle the problems here in New Zealand. Clearly they are not doing that. 
The issue of intervention in the Solomon Islands throws up the bigger picture and that is the fact of the matter. Of course it is important for New Zealand to be there. Located as we are in the Pacific one of our first responsibilities is to ensure our regional security and that we must do in conjunction with Australia. I am only disappointed that we waited so long to stand up and be counted and show that we do understand our responsibilities in the region and that if there ever were an area of the world where we should be first in it is our own region. That is a fact—other countries further afield look to New Zealand and Australia to take the lead in places like the Solomons. My regret as I said was that we did not show some leadership earlier and particularly considering that we have a very fine track record of dealing with similar situations. 
Our track record in dealing with the Bougainville issue under the leadership of the Rt Hon Don McKinnon was absolutely exemplary. It was done for the right reasons and in a way that gave us the leadership on that issue and it is only right and proper that New Zealand shows leadership. What I cannot stand is the sight of lots of photos of Ministers on the other side sending away so many of our young men and women to hot spots overseas but with so few resources. Those Ministers love photo opportunities; they love waving to the military—and to the police no doubt. They love to shoot up to Cairns to say: “Bye bye. Away you go. You’re doing a great job.” But that is not the way to approach those kinds of missions. These things have to be planned. As I say our first responsibility is to our region and where that is also possible then further afield. 
But this Government has shown—and there is a lot of public comment so it is not just my words—that it is not averse to using our Defence Force as its own personal toy for its spin and to cover up the gaps in its defence policy. For proof of that one need only look at the  
New Zealand Herald  
of Thursday 31 July: “Ex-chief savages defence policy”. How he managed to keep quiet when he was running the show is a tribute to his integrity. But now that he is not there he can come out and speak the truth. Air Marshal Carey Adamson says that defence policy is being decided “on the run”. How shameful is that for our men and women in the military? “The Labour-led Government” says the  
Herald 
 article “has sent forces to Afghanistan committed soldiers to the reconstruction of postwar Iraq and is assisting an Australian-led mission to end unrest in the Solomon Islands.” “What worries me’’ Carey Adamson states—[ 
Interruption 
]—“is that we seem to be going pretty heavily on peacekeeping but we’re not doing a lot of the professional training episodes. If you’re throwing away training just so you can go and do some peacekeeping…then the overall capability starts winding down.” 
Minister Burton’s response to that was so weak as to be laughable. Apparently he said that peacekeeping deployments had “helped to raise capability levels in the Defence Force.” What on earth does that mean? What would a “peacenik” know about it what would raise capability levels in our Defence Force? Absolutely nothing! It is a tragedy that we have a Minister of Defence who thinks he can tell the former Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Carey Adamson what raises capability levels. [ 
Interruption 
] Again on the weekend the  
New Zealand Herald  
stated that Labour was “running scared on defence”. It had a major editorial that absolutely underpinned what I said earlier which was that this Government loves the photo opportunities. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I draw your attention to page 51 of  
Speakers’ Rulings 
. There has been a barrage of interjections from the senior whip. They are unfounded and just a continual stream of nonsense. Under Speaker’s ruling 51/5 I ask that that member give our speaker a fair go with her speech. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member is quite right. The member will be heard in silence. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: This Government loves the photo opportunities. Its Ministers love to have photos waving our soldiers our men and women bye-bye and sending them off to hot spots in the Solomons and further afield—dangerous hot spots I might add—and without proper resources. In fact what resources we have cannot make it there anyway because the four Hercules are grounded. It is absolutely shameful that this Government treats our military in that way. It uses the military for its own purposes to fill in the cracks in its defence policy and foreign policy. The Prime Minister made gaffes in relation to Iraq so what did she do? She sent some personnel over there. Iraq is a highly dangerous spot and so are Afghanistan and the Solomons. 
When we are dealing with that sort of turmoil around the world we cannot afford to have defence policy being made on the run in the way that this Government is doing and in the way that Air Marshal Carey Adamson said it was doing. Who indeed would know better than him? He headed our military for some years and kept his integrity. He remained quiet while he headed the organisation but now he is able to come out and tell the truth for what it is. It is not only the Opposition parties saying that; it is someone who knows. 
The Minister of Defence has the temerity to tell Air Marshal Carey Adamson what he thinks raises the capability of the military. What a laugh coming from a “peacenik” who in his former life protested in peace marches and now comes here and tells us that. What an insult that he should be running the Defence Force and telling Carey Adamson what his job is. Government members might sit there and laugh and bring these bills to the House but they cannot run away from those things that are being said like the newspaper headlines “Ex-chief savages defence policy” and “Labour running scared on defence”. That is the truth of the matter. Those things underpin the bill that now sits before us so a simple intervention is actually not that at all. This Government has perpetrated a huge failure in defence policy on this country. 
Bill read a first time and referred to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee.