Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) : On behalf of the New Zealand Labour Party can I add our concern, our support, our sympathy, and our condolences to the people and to the Government of Chile following the massive, 8.8 on the Richter scale earthquake on 27 February. That earthquake left an estimated 700 people dead, over half a million homes destroyed, and 2 million people affected, as well as doing enormous damage to infrastructure like roads, bridges, and hospitals. In cities like Concepción and Constitución the devastation was overwhelming, and the overall cost of the damage is something approaching US$30 billion. To put that in context, it is about 15 percent of the annual GDP of Chile.

Chile, of course, is our nearest neighbour to the east, albeit 11 hours’ flight from New Zealand. Over recent years our friendship and our links, our working together on the trade front, and our people-to-people arrangements, like working holidays schemes—all of those things—have increased and strengthened our relationship with Chile. I welcome the assistance that New Zealand has been able to give—half a million dollars to the international efforts to help Chile—but I wonder whether we might have been able to extend other assistance to Chile, given the strong relationship that we have with the people of that country.

After Haiti and the Samoan tsunami there is, again, a question of whether we might develop a ready-reaction force, utilising the skills of our defence force, our police, and our civil defence personnel to help with search, rescue, and recovery. New Zealand’s own vulnerability to earthquakes is well known, and the practical experience that our people would get on the ground by assisting in that way, as well as the actual assistance that we gave to the country that we were helping, would, I believe, be invaluable.

Once again, to the people of Chile affected by that disaster, I add Labour’s voice to the expressions of concern and support from our Parliament today.