Blessings from all for our peacemakers

By Vernon Small

The doves joined chorus with the hawks in Parliament yesterday as politicians from all parties sent New Zealand troops to East Timor with their blessing.

"It's the right thing to do," they all agreed, handing the Government the multiparty backing - and therefore the minimal political risk - that it was seeking by recalling the House for the special debate.

Most speeches lacked passion as the leaders steered a non-jingoistic course between pride in our forces and fear of the risks and consequences.

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, with a new speechwriter or some rub-off from five days of Clinton-mania, came armed to the teeth with new sound bites.

The first launched a theme that ran through others' contributions - the "ethnic cleansing" in East Timor and the possible Balkanisation of Indonesia.

"In our region, just a few hours' flight north of us, we have our own Kosovo."

Parliament heard the speeches in near silence, and managed to conclude the debate 15 minutes short of four hours.

East Timor, MPs agreed, is a just war for self-determination and democracy.

The crisis was a wake-up call for our defence policy, some said, and threw doubt on the money and equipment we are prepared to commit to military matters.

This time, unlike our Gulf War involvement in 1991, no protester leaped into the debating chamber splattering animal blood around. Nor was there any objection from Opposition leaders to the intervention - UN approval saw to that.

Labour leader Helen Clark failed to really fire with a measured speech outlining the geo-political issues, the sacrifice of East Timor's nationalists, the humanitarian need and the role of non-government organisations in the territory's reconstruction.

Labour's Phil Goff, who has been to the province, gave a quick history of Indonesia's role in the conflict before asserting what the whole House felt: that the deployment was the right thing to do.

When Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons rose to "fully support the decision" to send in a force which includes the SAS (which the Greens want to disband) and the frigates and their support ship Endeavour (which they want to get rid of) universal backing was assured.

In the circumstances, she chose not to hark back to her party's view that "the only Asian invaders we are likely to face are pests like the Japanese gypsy moth."

Surrounded by plaques on the walls of the chamber commemorating previous battles - the Somme, Egypt, Messines - Defence Minister Max Bradford evoked the Anzac spirit.

"We are lucky to be in this deployment with our Aussie mates," he said.

If Indonesia was on our doorstep, then it was in Australia's porch, he added, as his rhetoric threatened to get a beachhead on his logic.

"You can depend on us. I know we can depend on you because we are going to have to," Mr Bradford told the Australian Prime Minister, forgetting that it might have been more straightforward just to telephone him. Movingly, he mentioned the personal pressure of being the minister who would send young troops off to war and into danger.

Foreign Minister Don McKinnon recalled the angry mail he had received in the runup to Apec as many attacked the Government's soft line.

At the other extreme, some in the Opposition last week called for an instant invasion.

Yesterday, realism got the upper hand on both sides.