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Hello, well next week we’re heading off to the United States in what should be a very,
very interesting visit.
At the end of that week I’ll be at the Oval Office and meeting President Obama.
It will be a great opportunity, actually, for two countries who have shared so much
in their history, including being allies and fighting, obviously, together in both World
War One and World War Two.
A great opportunity to talk about the future going forward for our countries, areas where
we share commitments, for instance, like Afghanistan.
Also talking about how we can grow our economies and trade more together.
America is a critical part of what’s called the Trans-Pacific Partnership - that’s eight
countries looking to form a free trade agreement.
That comes out of the APEC region, and where New Zealand would have a lot to gain from
that free trade agreement, as we’d have greater access to the 3 or 400,000,000 people
that call America home.
So it’s going to be an interesting visit.
I’m sure it will be one that will be very informative.
There are real challenges in the United States, as you’re probably aware, at the moment
– their very large debt levels, rising government deficit, and, of course, a very sticky unemployment
rate at 9.2 per cent.
I’m also going to take the opportunity to see a lot of senior members of the administration
– go and to talk to the head of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, we’ll be talking to
other senior leaders.
And spending some time actually in corporate America, where we’ll get a bit of a sense
of the challenges and the opportunities for those companies operating in the United States.
So, looking forward to that visit.
Hopefully it will be as successful as the recent trip we had to India.
It will fairly much wrap up what is likely to be my travel commitments for 2011.
Coming back we’ll have the Pacific Islands Forum, which New Zealand is hosting at the
early part of September.
Followed, of course, by the Rugby World Cup.
And then the election on November the 26th.
The only other thing that’s probably worth a mention this week has been the issue of
boat people.
We’ve seen a boat that has been commandeered and taken to port in Indonesia.
That’s a boat that may have been heading for New Zealand, or otherwise possibly Canada
or Australia.
But it reflects the issue that we’ve been talking about for quite some time.
And that is, that the people smugglers are increasingly getting larger craft capable
of taking a lot of people.
This was a steel-hulled boat, able to transport about 500 people, so clearly capable of coming
to New Zealand – or Canada.
Canada recently had a boat that turned up that was of similar sort of construction and
design.
From New Zealand’s point of view, we actually take our obligations to genuine refugees very
seriously every year.
We take approximately 700 refugees through the UNHCR programme.
We also offer those people family reunification.
We do everything we can to settle them into New Zealand, and to make sure that they are
welcome and that they can build a brighter future here in New Zealand.
The issue, of course, with asylum seekers is that these are people where the people
that transport them that arrange those boats and the likes are really criminals.
They are people that are trafficking human beings.
They are putting their lives at risk.
They are doing so to make money.
These people may not necessarily be refugees – they may or may not, that’s to be determined.
But, as we saw in Australia late last year on Christmas Island where a boat sank coming
into Christmas Island, there are very real risks and they are trafficking human misery
and we think that that’s quite wrong.
We also think it sends completely the wrong message.
New Zealand has a process.
We treat people fairly, and we ask them to come through the front door, who are legitimate
refugees that New Zealand can accommodate.
So it’s an interesting issue and one that I think we will hear more of over the years
as these people smugglers get access to bigger and bigger boats and therefore have a greater
reach.
Anyway, I look forward to reporting back after the trip to the United States.
And to getting into what will be a very quick countdown to the start of Rugby World Cup
2011.