NZ MP John Hayes Discusses Aid Funds

New Zealand MP John Hayes

New Zealand MP John Hayes has defended drawing comparisons between the needs of his Wairarapa electorate and Pacific island communities, which Labour claims may have soured relationships with the territories.

Mr Hayes, who is head of Parliament's Foreign Affairs select committee, last week told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report that self-government in Tokelau, Niue and the Cook Islands should be scrapped.

All three claim New Zealand citizenship, are provided with economic assistance and have their external affairs and defence matters handled by New Zealand.

In a speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs last week, Mr Hayes said the regions' public servants had for too long used aid funds to "build bureaucracy".

"They spend too much time and resource on activities of little or no direct benefit to the people they are meant to serve. Instead, they spend time and funding servicing the needs of international organisations," he said.

"The self-government model provides instutionalised incentives which encourage the political and bureaucratic elite to enjoy the status and trappings of sovereignty abroad rather than addressing the real issues concerning their citizens at home.

"New Zealand is providing almost $40 million each year in aid to less than 3000 people living in Tokelau and Niue which is absorbed by dysfunctional systems.

It is essential that we take a fresh look at these arrangements because the people adversely affected are the very people we provide aid to.

"Some leaders have taken actions which come close to corruption and do not reflect the behaviour expected from those travelling under the protection of New Zealand Diplomatic Passports."

Labour has hit out at what it called an "attack" on the territories and said Mr Hayes' comments on Morning Report, which the party said could have caused the country considerable diplomatic harm and "must be condemned by John Key".

"To have Government MP John Hayes, chair of Parliament's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee, with responsibilities for new foreign relations issues, essentially condemning the political leadership and democracy of the Cooks, Tokelau and Niue, sends a very bad message to Pacific communities both in New Zealand in the home islands," Labour's Foreign Affairs spokesperson Chris Carter said.

"John Hayes' attempt to compare costs between his Wairarapa electorate and the challenges faced by small communities in the Pacific is unrealistic and misleading.

"Such a simplistic approach is astonishing coming from a man who has served as a senior diplomat in the Pacific."

But Mr Hayes is sticking by his argument, and yesterday told the Times-Age people who have New Zealand passports deserve the same rights and services.

"The reality is that Labour has had nine years to get stuff right.

"It doesn't matter if you're living in Eketahuna or in Penrhyn in the Cook Islands, you've got the same rights. My argument is that we've got to treat all New Zealand citizens in the same way. You don't build group of New Zealanders who have substandard levels of education and health."

Mr Hayes said New Zealand was providing almost $40 million in aid each year to 3000 people living in Tokelau and Niue, which was being absorbed by "dysfunctional systems."

He said that population was "not a lot bigger than Greytown - and there's not $40 million flowing into Greytown each year."

SOURCE: WAIRARAPA TIMES AGE

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