Shearer David: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2951. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert):Keeping on with the topic of foreign affairs the Government has lost its way in this particular area. I look at the comments that were made by John Key just a few weeks ago about a deployment to Iraq. He mentioned human rights and I was surprised because I had never heard him mention human rights before. So I went to the Parliamentary Library and I asked: “How often has John Key mentioned human rights in the course of his time in Parliament?”. The answer was once—once other than in questions. It was just the once when he moved against Zimbabwe back in 2007. It was a big call—a very big call—but not really keeping up with what he was claiming and accusing about going into Iraq. And yet here we are with him about to go to Saudi Arabia where human rights are called discrepancies—discrepancies.I am in favour of a free-trade agreement with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States but it is our duty and our obligation under the treaties and the various agreements that we have signed up to under international law to make sure that we mention and take that to the table as well. The people of New Zealand are certainly not convinced that we are going into Iraq because of human rights. Fifty percent of them believe we are going there simply because our mates have asked us to and John Key cannot say no like a lot of other things that he does not feel obliged to say no to either.Mr McCully was asked yesterday about Indonesia and the executions and whether we support executions. No of course we do not here in New Zealand. But here is what he had to say about executions. He said that “It is a very concerning situation and we will have something formal to say about it.” When will he say that? When the two people accused are dead? When they have been executed? Probably. Of Nepal with regard to our urban search and rescuers going off to help he said that New Zealand stands ready. That is great except that everybody else left and went there and we were still standing ready. Unfortunately for the good people with the experience that they hold from dealing with Christchurch they did not get to go to Nepal. I believe that as a result of that we were not able to share our expertise and why? It is because we have sat here and dithered.In Vanuatu Cyclone Pam hit on 13 March. On 23 March 10 days later we sent our ship. Australia had already sent a ship. Australia had got its flights into Vanuatu before us. We know that every year cyclones and earthquakes are things that are likely to occur somewhere throughout the world and yet we do not have the ability to operate as quickly as other countries in the world. It is not about a race; it is about getting our act together so that we are able to be down there on the ground doing the job that we know we are good at and as a result the people who are in harm’s way will be able to benefit. We need to pre-position. We need to act. We need to stop dithering. We need to take a firm stance on the issues that this Government is not taking a firm stance on. Human rights is one of those issues. John Key needs to mention human rights more than just when he is about to send troops off to Iraq on an unpopular deployment because he is trying to please his mates.When it comes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership we have the prince of arrogance himself Mr Tim Groser swanning around saying: “I do not need to talk to the country. I do not need to discuss this with anybody else because I know everything there is to know about trade and I can make that decision on everybody’s behalf.” Wrong Mr Groser—you do have an obligation. You do have an obligation to talk to the rest of the country. You do have an obligation to sit down with civil society and actually explain what it is that we are getting ourselves into. New Zealand used to stand for something and now it stands for arrogance and dithering.