Ron Mark MP
New Zealand First
Spokesperson for Defence
7 DECEMBER 2016
Greens block parliamentary motion on Pearl Harbour attack anniversary
New Zealand First is shocked that the Green Party has blocked a parliamentary motion to commemorate 75-years today,
since Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbour.
“On the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbour every parliamentary party was on board except the Greens, who objected to our
describing the attack upon Pearl Harbour as a sneak attack,” says Ron Mark, New Zealand First Defence spokesperson.
“That’s why President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said of 7 December 1941 that it was “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”.
And so what the Green’s did today is another date that will live in infamy as it insults those veterans of the Pacific
War who are still with us.
“Pearl Harbour is significant for Kiwis because it saw the United States enter the Second World War and starting in
1942, some 150,000 Marines would arrive in New Zealand.
“A number would pay the ultimate sacrifice in defence of their country and ours too.
“And within days of the attack upon Pearl Harbour, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse
would be sunk off Malaya in ‘Britain’s Pearl Harbour.’
“It is a sad day when the politically correct attempt to rewrite history and deny the overwhelming majority of
Parliament to pay their respects to those fallen heroes and those who served, whom we will always be eternally
grateful,” Mr Mark said.
New Zealand First’s motion
“That this House joins with the people of the United States today, 7 December 2016, to commemorate the 75th anniversary
of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbour, “A date which will live in infamy,” as President Roosevelt described it,
and in doing so, honour those Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice over the war years, protecting not only their
homeland, but New Zealand too.”
ENDS