Blog #23

Nations would intervene would act as a deterrent to aggressors and diminish the tendency for small countries to look to great powers for protection. Storytelling for business 
Just as Peter Fraser did almost 40 years ago, it is now time for the New Zealand Government to join in fresh initiatives such as those proposed by the Palme Commission to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations. It is time to bring issues of security under the umbrella of that organisation, and not to leave them to the whims of the superpowers, whose guarantees of protection are only ever offered if it is in their own interests to do so, and have little to do with profound respect for territorial integrity and independence.
Finally, I want to draw the attention of the House to the linkage that exists between the issues of disarmament and aid and development. While the major economies of the world bankrupt themselves to pay for increased defence budgets, the considerations of sharing out the world’s resources more equitably, widening trade possibilities and raising living standards take a back seat.
In addition, in the present international recession it is easy for nations in crisis to cut back on aid spending in the belief that that cutback, unlike others, will not have domestic repercussions. If New Zealanders have a conscience they will not allow the government to get away with the shabby cuts it has made to its aid programmes. People should be aware that New Zealand’s credibility as a donor country to the developing world has been seriously undermined by the massive cuts in its aid. In this, as in so many other aspects, New Zealand’s image abroad has been seriously damaged by the government.
Consider that inflation and diminishing allocations have brought New Zealand’s present aid commitment down to less than half of what it was under the Third Labour Goverment. In 1982 the aid commitment stood at only 0.22 per cent of the gross domestic product—light years and millions of dollars away from the internationally agreed target of 1 per cent. The downward trend is even more serious when one considers what has happened to the buying power of the New Zealand dollar in recent years. The government has tried to make a virtue out of its declining aid commitments by concentrating much of what is left on the Pacific. That has been done to the virtual neglect of almost all other potential recipient countries. The most savagely treated have been those on the African continent, where the level of New Zealand aid spending has declined by more than 97 per cent, from $1.27 million in 1980–81 to $35,000 in 1982–83.