Metiria Turei delivered a very strong speech in response to Key’s ministerial statement on national security. The video of Key’s statement is here.
The text of Turei’s speech is here.
Some extracts:
Mr Speaker
The Green Party stands for peace and freedom.
Peace is the best weapon we have in achieving personal security. It is a simple fact that New Zealanders are safest in a peaceful world.
And our democracy is only as strong as our personal freedoms. When personal freedoms are eroded our democracy is weakened.
Today, John Key has eroded both our quest for peace at home and abroad, and eroded New Zealanders personal freedoms.
By offering support the US led war with ISIS we are part of a strategy that reduces the prospects of enduring peace in the Middle East; and in the process we are also being told that we have to give up freedoms here at home too.
[…]
Supporting war, either directly with boots on the ground, or through other actions, is one of the most important decisions we, as a nation, can ever make.
It is our view that through our intelligence gathering activities and support for the US led efforts, that New Zealand is part of the American war effort.
What John Key has set out is our clear support for those fighting the war with ISIS.
Today I am announcing that the Green Party does 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 its heart, sectarianism in Iraq.
Ten years of war waged by America could not solve the tensions that divide Sunni and Shia Iraqis or divide extremists from the moderates. How will this time be 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.
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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 than through Western military intervention.
The Green Party strongly supports a commitment to additional humanitarian aid in the region and a commitment to find an enduring political solution to the war in the Middle East, especially now that we are in a 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, especially 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’ll be more credible advocates for finding a political solution in the Middle East.
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Any military deployment in the Middle East will undermine our peace and security here at home.
While this is not a compelling reason to avoid engaging in conflict around the world where it is just and the outcome will be lasting, this US-led war against ISIS does not justify those costs we will bear here at home.
Rather than eroding our civil liberties, now is the time to strengthen our tolerant and free society.
Rather than shutting down, now is the time to open up.
Let’s look at what enlightened leaders are doing to reduce the risks posed by foreign fighters, rather than relying on the failed policies of the Abbot Government in Australia.
Joining the US-led war in the Middle East is already increasing the climate of fear back here at home.
We see it in the Prime Ministers speech today and in his recent statements.
Fear pervades the drip feeding of allegations that rise 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.
We reject becoming a nation of fear.
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Conclusion
Mr Speaker
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, only to be eroded in the most extreme of circumstances.
And I speak on behalf of those New Zealanders who believe in alternatives to war and fear; those who aspire to peace and freedom.
We can build a better world, but it will require a better approach than the one outlined by the Prime Minister today.
Read the full speech at the above link.
Today Metiria Turei was bold and clear. She showed a positive way forward. I give her a standing ovation!
Update: inthehousenz ondemand video of Turei’s speech here.
Rather than accept the narrative Key is trying to build, Turei identities and rejects that narrative. At the same time, she provides an alternative narrative, with a positive way forward.
Update #2: Youtube video of Metiria Turei’s speech.
Video and text of Kennedy Graham’s speech explaining the reasons for the Greens’ position on ISIL
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