Greens welcome Gillard visit

The Green Party today welcomed the forthcoming visit of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

“It is great to see that Julia Gillard is coming here on a state visit. It is important for New Zealand that we have a strong and positive relationship with Australia,” said Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman.

“We need to work together on key issues such as climate change, and we are very happy to see the positive influence that the Australian Greens are having on the Labor Government’s approach to this fundamental issue.

“The New Zealand Green Party is looking forward to hearing the Australian Prime Minister’s address while she is here. We did think that it is important that this did not happen during a sitting session of the New Zealand Parliament and we raised these concerns with the parliamentary Business Committee.

“No one apart from New Zealand MPs has ever been allowed to address a sitting session of Parliament, not even our own Governor-General. It would set a precedent if the Australian PM does.

“We think it is really important to maintain the democratic sovereignty of New Zealand’s Parliament, if we allow one Head of State to address a sitting session of Parliament, then we will inevitably allow other visiting dignitaries to do the same.

“If we change this long-standing rule then it will create a slippery slope which could undermine the democratic sovereignty of our Parliament,” said Dr Norman.