3. R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) Link to this
to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
How are New Zealand’s relations with our Pacific Island neighbours, particularly the Cook Islands?
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Minister of Foreign Affairs) Link to this
New Zealand has an important stake in progress being made in addressing the challenges facing Pacific Island nations. Our relations in the Pacific are a special priority for this Government. New Zealand has a strong and special bilateral relationship with the Cook Islands. That is demonstrated in the support provided by New Zealand through our aid programme, and through the many connections between our peoples and Governments.
During the Minister’s recent extensive visit to the Pacific Islands as Minister of Foreign Affairs, did he receive any reports regarding the foreign policies of political parties in New Zealand?
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
I most certainly did. A number of Pacific Island people in Government raised the issue of the comments of the National Party’s associate spokesperson on foreign affairs regarding the Tokelau islands and the recent referendum, and also the extension by analogy with Niue island. Mr John Hayes said that the whole referendum was ill-advised and a total waste of money. [ Interruption] What he does not understand, and neither does Mr Nick Smith, is that, frankly, under article 73 of the United Nations Charter we are obliged to assist those islands into a state of self-government. That policy has been followed by successive Governments for the last 30 years. Obviously, Nick Smith and Mr Hayes do not know about their own party’s policy.
Keith LockeHow will the Minister be responding to the request from the Tongan pro-democracy MP Akalesi Pohiva for New Zealand to assist the Tongan parliamentary select committee looking at democratic political reform, following Mr Peters’ meetings with Mr Pohiva and with the select committee head, Prince Tu’ipelehake, and will New Zealand be providing any new aid to assist political reform and economic progress in Tonga?
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
We are already assisting the process by way of a grant to the committee, which is conferring with a number of interest groups and people in Tonga. In fact, about 40 meetings have already been held, and I am confident that the outcome will lead to progress. But as is the case throughout Polynesia, including in Tonga, the people who stay home—the people who keep the land warm—are the ones whom one listens to first, not expatriates in New Zealand. That was made very clear to the pro-democracy committee.
How do his recent relationship-building efforts in the Pacific, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, contrast with the first-ever visit to the Pacific by the National Party hierarchy today?
Gerry BrownleeI raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. The question is clearly out of order. How can one have a contrast between something that has happened and something that has not happened? Perhaps Mr Peters might like to ask Mr Woolerton to ask the question next week, when there will be only good news for him to report.
Madam SPEAKER
Rodney HideRt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
I tell Mr Hide that we will get around to talking about his tenancy for the last 2 years very soon—facts and data. It will keep in the meantime.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. This House dissembled into some disorder yesterday, largely because of irrelevant comments made at the start of questions, or answers, or other such, by Winston Peters. It seems that he is being indulged in a way that no other member is. That was the start of an answer to a question. If we are going to be asked to drop even the most minor of inappropriate expressions in asking questions, then he should be condemned and have some censure put on him for that sort of behaviour.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
Speaking to the point of order, I point out that everyone heard the barrage coming from that side, and the comments, before I started. My simple message to Mr Hide and others over there is: “If you can’t take it, don’t try to dish it out.”
The reality is that interjections were made that were responded to. If the interjections had not been made, the response would not have been there. So I ask members to start again, please, and would the Minister please address the question.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
Let me just say that it is rather confusing in respect of these reports, because I have this quote from Mr McCully, whom I understand is the foreign affairs spokesman for the National Party: “We will have a policy at the end of this parliamentary term in readiness for the election.”
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. You made some interesting rulings yesterday about Ministers being able to answer only inside their ministerial responsibility. The question was about whether he had seen any reports of the National Party hierarchy visiting the Cook Islands. The answer would be “Yes.”, because he actually gave permission for that group to go, so he knows that. The rest of the stuff is just extraneous rubbish.
If the Minister has any official reports, then, of course, he comments on them. But as has been said many times in this House, there is no responsibility for other parties. So would the Minister please address the question in that context.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
I am trying to, because I did not give permission for Dr Brash to go to the Cook Islands, at all; he went on his own accord—I do not know why. But can I just say this: he says in the Cook Island News today, I understand—
No. If there are official reports that the Minister has received, then he is perfectly entitled to address them in this House.
Hon Dr Nick Smith Link to this
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Yesterday you took issue with my asking Dover Samuels questions about what he had said. Now we have the Minister of Foreign Affairs treating as official a report in a Cook Islands newspaper about what Don Brash might have said. How can it possibly be within Speakers’ rulings that a newspaper report is an official report that gives Winston Peters the capacity to go on a grudge match because National is doing so well?
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
Speaking to the point of order, I do not recall Doug Woolerton using the word “official”, at all. He asked whether I had any reports, and I have.
To clarify the matter for the Minister, he is responsible for matters that come to him as reports that are official; he is not responsible for the actions or policies of other parties in the House. If the Minister could address the question in that context, that would be appropriate. If not—if his answer is just a comment on another party—then that is not a matter that the Minister is responsible for, and that answer should not be given.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. That is the third time the Minister has defied your ruling. You have said to him three times that he is responsible only for any ministerial reports that he has got officially. He has just got up, having been told that for the third time, and said: “I’m just wanting to share with the House, X, Y, Z, and Uncle Tom Cobbleigh.”
Unfortunately, I could not hear the end of the Minister’s answer to the question, or at least the sentence, to know whether that was the case.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. It is worse than that. I have not had a chance to get one sentence out without countless interjections and points of order coming from members on that side of the House. Unless they are mind-readers or soothsayers, I suggest they keep quiet until they hear the total answer.
Would the Minister then please address the question within the context that I have ruled—what he is responsible for in his official ministerial responsibility.
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS Link to this
Well, I am responsible for this country’s policy in respect of Niue and the Tokelaus in particular. The special thing about that is the unique relationship we have with those countries. That relationship is not enhanced when so-called senior politicians make such grave mistakes against obligations we have with the United Nations.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I think you will recall that Mr Woolerton’s question, which I believe the Minister is now apparently addressing, related to the Cook Islands, not the Tokelaus or Niue.
Actually, the primary question was about relations with our Pacific Island neighbours, particularly, but not confined to, the Cook Islands. Can we please move on.
Hon Annette KingI raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I have been reflecting on your ruling that Ministers can comment only on official reports. I wonder whether you would give the House a ruling on Ministers having to comment on reports mentioned in Opposition questions that are not official reports—for example, quoting the Independent as a source, then asking a Minister to comment on it. Should a Minister be required to answer questions from the Opposition on reports that are not official?