I have always been proud of New Zealands independent stance on the world stage. It was one of the things in the 1980s that generated my interest in politics, and later as a diplomat at the UN I was proud to play my part. We are respected for that independence, and for our contribution to humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. Its with that in mind that my view is that John Key seems to be leading us down a dangerous path with his comments in recent days. There is no doubt that the actions of Islamic State are deeply disturbing and barbaric. For New Zealand, the questions must be what is the appropriate response for us? How can we contribute to long term peace and security in the region? We are yet to see the briefing that Cabinet has received, but my personal view is that putting NZ troops into this situation without a UN mandate is wrong. It might be that we expand our humanitarian assistance, but joining in this conflict beyond that is deeply concerning. Also deeply concerning is that John Key is fear-mongering over beheadings and proposing ramming through reform to SIS legislation under urgency. We have seen what a mess was made of the GCSB legislation taking this approach. One of the goals of organisation like Islamic State is to undermine the freedoms of countries like ours. We should work through any gaps in our law to get the balance between freedom and security not make knee-jerk responses.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 07:47:09 +0000
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