It is an honour to
address the General Assembly today on behalf of the
Prime Minister and Government of New Zealand. Our
general election took place in the past week. Our Prime
Minister, the Right Honourable John Key, is engaged in
forming a Government, and that is why he is unable to
be in New York today.
I want to begin by acknowledging the success of
the recent third International Conference on Small
Island Developing States, held in Samoa. The success
of the Conference was the result of the extraordinary
work Samoa put into preparing for the Conference and
the ownership of the agenda that was demonstrated by
the small island developing States (SIDS). While it is
undoubtedly true that small island developing States
have placed great value on the opportunity to talk, it
is also true that there was an undertone of frustration,
born of the fact that too often in the past talk has not
been followed by action. I strongly identify with that
view. The multilateral world is awash with talk of plans
and strategies and funds, while out there in the real
world of small island developing States, not enough is
happening on the ground. My country, New Zealand, is
intent on avoiding that shortcoming, especially in our
own region, the Pacific.
Renewable energy featured strongly in the SIDS
Conference agenda, as it had at the Secretary-General’s
2014 Climate Summit in the past week. Pacific nations
spend 10 per cent of their gross domestic product and up
to 30 per cent of their entire import bills on importing
diesel fuel for electricity generation. Sustainable
economic development therefore simply cannot happen
in our region without renewable energy.
Significant progress is being achieved, especially
since the Pacific Energy Summit 2013 that we co-hosted
with the European Union in Auckland in March 2013,
at which $635 million in funding was committed for
over 50 projects. The Tokelau Islands have moved from
100 per cent dependence on fossil fuels to 93 per cent
renewable. During the SIDS Conference itself, we
opened a 2.2-megawatt plant, a solar array in Samoa.
A year earlier we opened a 1.2-megawatt plant in
Tonga. Next month, we will open a 1-megawatt array in
Rarotonga. And in the next 12 months, all of the outer
islands of Tuvalu and all but one of the outer Cook
Islands will be close to 100 per cent renewable.
We are making real progress towards converting
our Pacific neighbourhood to renewable energy,
bringing significant environmental benefits and
greatly enhancing prospects for sustainable economic
development. My country has committed over
$100 million to that process. We are not waiting for a
new multilateral agreement or a new green fund. We
are simply getting ahead with robust partnerships and
making it happen.
Another key topic at the SIDS Conference was
sustainable fisheries. For our region, that is critically
important. The biggest economic asset in the Pacific
is its fisheries. In the past year, over $3.3 billion worth
of tuna was harvested from Pacific waters, yet only
14 per cent of that value, about $460 million, made
its way back to Pacific nations. New Zealand has
committed over $70 million over the next five years
to advance a comprehensive approach that includes
enhanced surveillance, training of monitors, training
in commercial fishing practices, research and science
initiatives and improving management practices. Our
objective is to see the owners of the Pacific tuna resource
receive a significantly greater share of the value of that
resource, and to ensure that it is sustainably managed
for the future.
A key message from the SIDS Conference is the need
to share experiences and skills among the SIDS regions.
That is starting to happen. Fisheries management is a
prime candidate for greater cooperation. We have also
commenced a process of interregional cooperation in
renewable energy by supporting the development of
geothermal energy in the Caribbean and Africa.
While small island developing States are showing
real leadership in addressing climate change and
shifting to renewable energy, those issues require action
on a global scale. We therefore commend the Secretary-
General for convening the Climate Summit here in
New York last week. We are participating actively in
those negotiations and hope they will pave the way for
a successful conclusion in Paris next year. We have
made an initial commitment to the Green Climate
Fund to show our support for the global effort, but we
will unashamedly continue to prioritize making real
progress with real projects in our own region, which
will continue to consume the bulk of our resources.
The other major event that has recently taken place
in the Pacific is the election in Fiji. We congratulate the
Prime Minister, his party and the people of Fiji on their
successful return to democratic rule. Fiji’s successful
elections are hugely important for the region. I am
delighted that following the preliminary report of the
multinational observers group, both the Pacific Islands
Forum and the Commonwealth have commenced the
process of lifting Fiji’s suspension. We look forward to
rebuilding and strengthening the connections between
us. Neither New Zealand nor Fiji can contemplate a
future that does not entail close and continuing links
with the other. We also welcomed the safe return of the
Fiji peacekeepers who were held hostage in the Golan
Heights. That incident again underlined the great
challenges and the dangers faced by United Nations
peacekeepers and the responsibilities we all have to
ensure the safety and security of peacekeeping and
other United Nations personnel.
It is as well that we are able to note some bright
spots for our region, because the situation in other parts
of the world does look bleak.
What happened over the past few months in
Gaza was an affront to humanity. No good was done
for the cause of Palestine by Hamas firing rockets
indiscriminately into Israel. No good was done for peace
in the Middle East by Israel pounding Gaza with such
intensity and at such cost of civilian lives. We welcome
the ceasefire that was agreed after so many false starts
and are thankful that so far it endures. We call on all
sides not only to keep the guns and rockets silent but to
refrain from actions that may destabilize what can only
be described as an uneasy peace. In that connection, we
express our profound regret at Israel’s appropriation of
400 hectares of privately owned Palestinian land near
Bethlehem for settlements. That act itself is profoundly
unhelpful.
The problems of the Middle East are deep and
difficult. They go back to the earliest days of the
Organization and beyond. But what happened over
the past months in and in relation to Gaza was a
modern failure — a failure of leadership, of purpose
and of vision. We urge the leaders of Israel and of
Palestine, both West Bank and Gaza, to live up to their
responsibilities to their peoples and to their positions.
In Syria and Iraq, we see the truly frightening
consequences when leadership, both internally and
in the Security Council, has failed. Syria has been a
weeping sore for over three years. Thousands of Syrians
have died, millions have become refugees and all
Syrian people have suffered terribly from the multiple
conflicts engulfing the country. And now the tragedy
of Syria has spilled over into Iraq, which was already
wrestling with its own deep-seated problems. Many
actors, in both the recent past and over a longer time
frame, have had a hand in contributing to the situation
we now confront, but now it is time for action.
We need to find a way to contain the madness that
is the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, to address
the humanitarian tragedy and to help the people of Syria
and Iraq craft a better future. By any objective standard,
that is a situation that cries out for Security Council
attention, and that is true of both sides of the border.
We need the Council members and the Governments
concerned to move past the ideological stalemate that
has kept the Council largely impotent for the past three
years. The challenge we all face in Syria and Iraq is
unlike any the United Nations has faced before. The
political circumstances in which it is being played out
are about as bad as they get. Yet somehow we must find
a way of coming together to defeat that shared problem.
Paralysis has also prevailed in the Security Council
over Ukraine. The Council has been essentially
a bystander as one of its permanent members has
undermined the integrity of another Member State. We
recognize the difficulties of managing ethnic tensions
that straddle borders and the risks of local fires being
stoked into wider national and international crises. But
with the strong shared histories of cooperation and
achievement between Russia and Ukraine, there is no
excuse for leaders allowing matters to unravel as they
have, to the point where international peace and security
may be at risk. Already hundreds of innocent civilians
on Flight MH-17 lost their lives through an associated
mistake and miscalculation. We welcome the ceasefire
agreed earlier this month, which has held, for the most
part. We call on all involved to step back, think about
what is at stake and start rebuilding the trust essential
to finding a lasting solution.
Events in the Middle East and Ukraine have
dominated the headlines in recent months and have
diverted attention from the serious situations that
continue to play out in Africa, particularly in Libya,
Mali, the Central African Republic, South Sudan,
Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The
United Nations is directly involved in those crises,
and they continue to challenge the capacity of the
Organization and of the African Union to respond
to the sheer scale of human suffering and to the
continuing need for external assistance to restore and
keep the peace, keep civilian populations safe and
deliver humanitarian assistance. Those issues, no less
than those in the Middle East and Eastern Europe,
will continue to require constant attention from the
Security Council and the coordinated efforts of the
broader United Nations family. They show that for all
its failings and structural inequalities, the Council still
has a vital role to play in maintaining international
peace and security.
But there is one lesson that we must learn from
all those recent crises — the United Nations must
fundamentally improve its performance in preventing
conflict. Once fighting is in full spate, the options for
peace disappear. Prevention is critical, not just in new
conflicts, but also in the cases on the agenda where
conflict has been frozen or where peacebuilding has
not really taken hold.
We are deeply troubled by the unprecedented scale
of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. We recognize
the huge challenges it poses to the economies and
the political and security cohesion in the region. We
have contributed and will continue to contribute to the
humanitarian work under way, and on the formation of
a new Government, we will look at further practical
steps to support the international effort.
In 18 days’ time, the United Nations membership
will decide who will be on the Security Council for the
next two-year term. New Zealand has been a candidate
for that position since 2004. It has been 20 years since
we were last on the Council. It has been a long and
demanding campaign, and it will continue right up to
the elections on 16 October. With tough competitors,
such as our good friends Spain and Turkey, that has to
be the case. The campaign has been a great opportunity
for us to engage with nations around the world. We
greatly value the new relationships we have forged
and the enhanced character of existing relationships.
Whatever the outcome, we are determined to maintain
them.
In the past, New Zealand has demonstrated that as
a member of the Council it acts strongly, effectively and
independently. It champions the rights of small States
and for the voices of all to be heard. In short, as my
Prime Minister said from this rostrum last year, there
is no point in joining the Council simply to make up the
numbers. Sometimes one has to speak up and shine a
light on what is going on, or not going on, even when it
is embarassing or inconvenient to others to do so.
Above all, I can assure the Assembly that if we
are elected, New Zealand will be a credible, positive
influence on the Security Council. At our core, New
Zealand is an optimistic country and New Zealanders
are an optimistic people. We believe that things can be
better than they are and are prepared, as a people, to
work hard to achieve that. Despite the many challenges
on the international agenda, my hope is that the
membership of the United Nations will give us an
opportunity to prove that by serving on the Security
Council from next year.