From MANA Foreign Policy Spokesperson John Minto.

Mana Movement – Foreign Policy release – Sunday 20 November

The headline points from the policy

1. Bring the troops back from Afghanistan and use the money to feed kids in decile 1 to 3 schools.

Comment: Our troops in Afghanistan are involved in an imperial war on behalf of the US. We are helping prop up an illegitimate government of drug barons and war lords. We are seen quite rightly as foreign invaders and our presence increases the possibility of New Zealand becoming a terrorist target in future. The $40 million we would save would be used to kick-start our “feed the kids” program which would roll out for all New Zealand children at school to provide healthy breakfasts and lunches. We would start at decile 1 to 3 primary schools at a cost of around $38 million.

2. Withdraw from the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations.

Comment: the TPPA is not so much a free trade agreement as a bill of rights for foreign corporations to plunder this country and our resources. Foreign investment in New Zealand has not provided jobs. Instead it has bought up existing infrastructure rather than invest in new “greenfield” developments.

3. Treat our Pacific neighbours the same as Australians when it comes to immigration.

Comment: New Zealand treats our Pacific neighbours as a cheap source of unskilled labour to be used and abused. We would allow our Pacific neighbours to enter New Zealand on the same basis as Australians. This would end a long history of discrimination against people from the Pacific.
Already people from the Cook Islands and Niue are able to do so but Tongans and Samoans face heavy restrictions.

MANA PARTY POLICY STATEMENT
Foreign policy
MANA believes that the relationships between Aotearoa New Zealand and other peoples and countries must be shaped by our ethics of solidarity and manaakitanga and our vision for a just future, not by the interests of major powers and their corporations, as happens now. Foreign corporations control too much of our country, making them rich at the expense of our jobs, natural resources, public assets and our sovereignty. New Zealand governments send troops fight the super-powers’ wars in other countries but fail to condemn abuses of human rights, especially of indigenous peoples, elsewhere. Free trade and investment treaties are treated as sacred, while te Tiriti and international rights of indigenous peoples remain unenforceable. Mana stands for an ethical foreign policy that includes:

Foreign Policy

• Making New Zealand’s support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples unconditional

• Withdrawing of New Zealand military personnel all countries where they are engaged in combat or supporting roles for externally instigated wars

• Terminating all current negotiations for free trade and investment agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

• Exploring alternative models for international collaboration based on the economics of solidarity, starting with the South Pacific

• Working with indigenous peoples to develop alternative constitutional arrangements that recognise and protect indigenous sovereignty

• Requiring any foreign investment to satisfy a Tiriti impact assessment and approval from mana whenua

• Implementing a ‘hone heke’ tax on financial transactions to restrict speculation on the New Zealand dollar that makes investors rich while destabilizing the New Zealand economy

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