The previous post was the result of our having a read of all Parliamentry questions asked of our star Foreign Minister Winston Peters over the last several months. What is notable, is the lack of searching questions by National, and the extent to which the Minister is being kept honest by questions by various Green MPs. Unfortunatley we don't thing that we can rely on the Greens to follow up on work that Trevor Louden has done on the possible support, by NZAID funds, of travel to get togethers with Mexico's Zapatista rebels (Army of National Liberation).
According to the CID websiteCID administers the Travel Fund at the request of NZAID to assist New Zealand NGOs to participate in significant international development conferences, meetings or workshops on development.
Please note this allocation from the CID NGO Travel Fund listed in CID's 2007 Annual ReportLatin America Solidarity Committee – Richard Jeffrey to attend the Encuentro of the Zapatista Communities with the Peoples of the World conference to be held in Chiapas Province, Mexico, 21-31 July 2007 $3,500
Could you please tell me why NZAID/taxpayers money is funding travel to Zapatista run "Encuentros"?
What does such travel contribute to New Zealand's foreign aid programme?
These seem to us to be questions that should be asked by the Opposition and the mainstream media. If this is true we believe that Minister Peters should resign and that heads should roll in MFAT and NZAID also.
We also question what Mexico's attitude to this issue is? Is this really what we want to be happening when we are asking Mexico to agree to negotiate an FTA with us? Again these are questions we would have expected from the media and the opposition.
