New Zealand, 2009

To the powers, to the

voices, to the four winds: I greet you all.

I have addressed the Assembly in Te Reo Maori,

the indigenous language of New Zealand, and I bring

warm Pacific greetings from all New Zealanders.

I am deeply honoured to lead New Zealand’s

delegation to the General Assembly for the first time.

Like every New Zealand Prime Minister since 1945, I

stand here today to reaffirm my country’s commitment

to the United Nations and the United Nations Charter.

The founding Members of the United Nations

gathered in San Francisco in 1945 to create this

Organization out of the ashes of the most destructive

war and the most debilitating depression in modern

history. They believed in the larger freedom of a world

where collective action might avert common crises.

They believed in the rule of law, by which all States

would be held to a universal standard, and in a world

where all peoples, faiths and cultures could flourish.

They believed in a future in which every human being

would be free from want and free from fear. And they

wanted an international Organization and architecture

that could deliver those benefits.

New Zealand was active among those founding

Members in San Francisco. And, as a small,

independent and diverse country in the Pacific, New

Zealand still has a stake in the United Nations — this

great meeting place for all States.

I have benefited personally from efforts to secure

those ideals. My family fled persecution in Europe, and

I was privileged to grow up in a new world where a

child of immigrants is now accorded the extraordinary

privilege of leading his country and addressing this

Assembly on its behalf.

We meet at a time of many challenges. With

130 heads of State and Government assembled here

this week, the present session of the General Assembly

represents our greatest opportunity since the 2005

World Summit to reaffirm our collective resolve. New

Zealand embraces that opportunity. Today, I will focus

on some of the most pressing issues demanding

collective responses from us.

The crisis in the global economy continues. We

must remain resolute in our efforts to stabilize the

global economy in order to permit a return to

sustainable growth. New Zealand welcomes the actions

of the Group of 20 (G-20) over the past year. But, in

commending those efforts, we call on the G-20 to heed

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the voices of the world’s small economies and to

ensure that they are also heard in global decision-

making.

Free and fair trade will be the principal engine for

driving developing countries out of poverty and

bringing greater prosperity to all. An essential

component in our response to the global economic

crisis must therefore be a balanced and ambitious

conclusion to the Doha Round of world trade talks. A

genuinely global agreement that reduces tariffs,

eliminates export subsidies, reduces domestic subsidies

and increases market access will see benefits flow to

all States. At a time when all countries are suffering

from the brunt of the current economic crisis, further

delay is inexcusable.

As one of the world’s first truly open economies,

New Zealand has an unwavering commitment to trade

liberalization and to the pursuit of bilateral, regional

and global free trade agreements. We support the call

of the Secretary-General for the immediate suspension

of price controls and other agricultural trade

restrictions, in order to reduce soaring food prices and

help millions cope with the highest food prices in

30 years.

Therefore, I call on all those States and groupings

that have broken their undertakings and reintroduced

protectionist measures to reconsider. Those actions are

as harmful as they are unacceptable. Agriculture, which

is so important for developing countries in particular, is

one of the sectors most affected.

The escalation of poverty is a result of the

economic crisis. New Zealand is, naturally, proud of

the efforts of the United Nations Development

Programme to strengthen its focus as the largest United

Nations development agency on poverty and the

achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

For its part, New Zealand pledges to continue to

increase its official development assistance, with a

clear focus on the Pacific Islands region. Aid

effectiveness is just as important as the quantum of aid.

That is why, last month, we committed to the Cairns

Compact, which will strengthen development

coordination in the Pacific islands.

The major focus of the General Assembly this

year must be on the challenge of climate change.

Climate change demands innovation and a global

response. The world cannot afford to contemplate

failure at Copenhagen. Political leadership is needed,

and it is on display.

At the Summit on climate change this week, the

leaders of the world’s three biggest economies showed

their determination both to make Copenhagen a success

and to take action themselves. All countries must take

action that reflects our individual circumstances,

responsibilities and capabilities.

For our part, New Zealand is committed to

securing a durable and meaningful agreement on

climate change — an agreement that is both

environmentally effective and economically efficient. I

have set a target for New Zealand of reducing

greenhouse gas emissions by 10 to 20 per cent below

1990 levels by 2020, if there is a comprehensive global

agreement. That amounts to a per capita drop of 35 to

42 per cent since 1990.

New Zealand is acutely conscious that most of

our greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock

methane emissions, which so far no technology can

reduce. At the same time we are proud of our role as a

food producer to the world and the contribution we can

make to assuring food security for the world’s people.

Our challenge is to find a way to balance growth

in agricultural production with the need to reduce

emissions and reach climate change targets.

That is not just a challenge for New Zealand, but

one for the world. Agricultural emissions make up

14 per cent of all emissions worldwide. As demand for

food rises, so will those emissions. Yet so far the only

known way to achieve emission reductions from

agriculture is through reductions in output, which is

not an acceptable response — not for New Zealand,

and not for a growing world that seeks freedom from

hunger.

A better response to this challenge must be found.

In my view, the response must draw on the power and

possibility of science. Just as New Zealand is proud of

its agricultural producers, so are we proud of our role

in agricultural research. This research has resulted in

scientific and technological advances that have

improved production and fed virtually millions of

people.

But advancing research in the area of emission

reduction requires a commitment so broad that it is

beyond the capacity of any one individual country.

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That is a challenge that requires collective action, and

it is collective action that I call for today.

New Zealand has developed a proposal for a

global alliance on the reduction of agricultural

emissions. This alliance would undertake international

research and investment into new technologies and

practices to help reduce agriculture-related emissions

and would seek to achieve greater coordination of

existing efforts.

Through a global alliance we can find solutions

faster, make better use of the money that is being spent

around the world and encourage all countries and

companies to do more. We have been delighted with

the interest that our proposal has received so far, and

we will continue working with others to explore the

concept. Today, my call to other agricultural producers

of the world is to rise to this challenge and join New

Zealand in this research effort.

I now want to address some of the security crises

that we confront. Yesterday I had the honour to observe

the high-level Security Council meeting on

disarmament and non-proliferation. As a country with a

proud record of promoting nuclear disarmament and

non-proliferation, I was heartened by the expressions

of support for a world free of nuclear weapons. We

must all take full advantage of this historic moment to

advance the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation

agenda. We owe it to our generation and to those who

follow us to move our vision for a world free from

nuclear weapons forward. As a proudly nuclear-free

nation and a country that has been at the forefront of

that debate since the 1970s, New Zealand stands ready

to play its part.

We are optimistic about the prospects for

progress. Last week, New Zealand presided over the

General Conference of the International Atomic Energy

Agency in Vienna, Austria. Preventing the spread of

nuclear weapons through the implementation of

safeguards under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

is a fundamental pillar of the Agency’s work. Next year

sees the quinquennial review conference of the Nuclear

Non-Proliferation Treaty.

New Zealand will actively work with our New

Agenda Coalition partners for a meaningful outcome at

that conference to bring us closer to a truly secure

world.

We will also continue to address the humanitarian

harm caused by conventional weapons. We will work

for a robust, action-oriented outcome later this year at

the second review conference of the Ottawa

Convention on Landmines.

Looking back, I am proud of the role that New

Zealand was able to play in the negotiation of the

Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Government

attaches priority to passing legislation to enable us to

ratify this very significant treaty. New Zealand also

continues to play its part in maintaining and promoting

international peace and security.

Peacekeeping remains one of this Organization’s

most essential tasks and most solemn responsibilities to

its Members. While United Nations peacekeeping has

been significantly strengthened since the testing it

underwent in the 1990s, the demands now being placed

on it are severe.

I want to express my profound gratitude to those

civilians and military personnel who place their lives at

risk to support peace and live up to the ideals of the

Charter of the United Nations. Ensuring that United

Nations peacekeeping is as effective and responsive as

possible must therefore remain one of the

Organization’s most urgent priorities.

The United Nations provides the legal mandate —

and often the operational effectiveness — for our joint

efforts to achieve and maintain peace and security. New

Zealand is firmly committed to supporting United

Nations peacekeeping — both its own operations and

others that it has mandated, such as those in which we

are involved in Afghanistan, the Solomon Islands and

Timor-Leste.

All too often, however, the United Nations has

found itself unable to respond to emerging crises. New

Zealand therefore strongly supports the concept of

responsibility to protect. I am pleased at the solid

foundation that the General Assembly’s recent debate

on that responsibility has laid for its implementation.

New Zealand also strongly supports the

International Criminal Court (ICC). It is a fundamental

tenet of our domestic legal systems that wrongdoers

must be brought to justice. The ICC is the mechanism

for applying that same principle to persons accused of

the most serious international crimes.

New Zealand takes very seriously its

responsibilities for creating and maintaining peace and

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security in its region and in the world. I am therefore

pleased to confirm New Zealand’s candidature for the

United Nations Security Council for 2015-2016 in the

elections to be held in 2014. In advancing its

candidature, New Zealand does so as a State committed

to upholding the international rule of law and to

providing a strong and principled Pacific voice on

behalf of small States like ourselves with an interest in

a fairer and more secure world.

We all have a stake in a world where peace and

the rule of law prevail, where all States are secure and

can prosper and where all people are guaranteed the

human rights and fundamental freedoms promised

them in the Charter.

But we also know that solutions to the problems

we collectively face do not lie with inspirational goals

and promises that can be — and far too often are —

quickly and quietly forgotten and ignored. Hard,

pragmatic decisions must be made. Enforceable

solutions must be implemented.

We know that effective, collective action is in

every country’s long-term, national interest. That is

what New Zealand believed in 1945, and I recommit

now to taking action to live up to the ideals of the

United Nations Charter, here, in this great Hall, this

evening.