John Key’s
desperate claims that the former Labour Government didn’t
put combat troop deployment to a Parliamentary vote are
simply wrong, Labour’s Defence spokesperson Phil Goff
says.
“It was disgraceful that the Prime Minister
ran rough shod over democracy and denied Parliament a vote
on sending soldiers to Iraq.
“Former Labour Prime
Minister Helen Clark sought Parliament’s approval in
October 2001 to send the SAS to Afghanistan. She was not
technically required to do so. “There needs to be sound
reason to put Kiwi soldiers in harm’s way and Parliament
must vote on those.
“Labour has always carefully
weighed up the pros and cons of such grave decisions. We
made our own judgement rather than doing what bigger
countries wanted us to do. We did it for the right reason,
not to kowtow to ‘the club’,” Phil Goff says.
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