“Gerrymandering” the Iraq Deployment
Ron Mark MP
Spokesperson for Defence
2
APRIL 2015
“Gerrymandering” the Iraq Deployment
The truth is slowly emerging over New Zealand’s involvement in Iraq, after months of the government denying New Zealand First MPs were right about the depth of our involvement.
“Kiwi soldiers are now training in Australia,” says Ron Mark, New Zealand First Defence Spokesperson.
“The sad truth is that we know more about what the New Zealand Defence Force is doing than hapless Minister of Defence Gerry Brownlee does.
“On Tuesday, it was ‘up to 50 troops’ training in Australia but yesterday that number grew to 100.
“Given pre-deployment training and now integrated training with the Australian Army, it seems to go beyond the supposed training role our men and women are meant to be tasked with undertaking.
“The Minister has been caught out once again but all we want is for him, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to come clean with our soldiers over the status of forces agreement they’ll have.
“It is ironic that Iraq’s parliament is being given much more say over the role and ability of our men and women to defend themselves than our parliament has ever had. This shows no respect for our people in uniform, parliament or the New Zealand public,” says Mr Mark.
ENDS