The Labour M.P., who could give Winston Peters a foreign policy challenge

Labour M.P. and potential Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vanushi Walters (Herald/Mark Mitchell)

A couple of weeks ago, Labour announced it was having an overhaul of its front line spokespeople. As a non-Labour voter wondering what Hipkins is doing to rejuvenate his front bench, the reshuffle was expected. Many of the announcements were fairly expected, but one – as will be explained later – caught my eye.

Vanushi Sitanjali Walters is no stranger to human rights crises, having seen and experienced first-hand the effects of oppression by the military regime in Sri Lanka. Her uncle was arrested by the secret police the night before he was due to leave the country, and was never seen again. And although that civil war ended in 2009, there are still scars that will exist for a time to come.

I had the privilege of meeting Vanushi in my early days in Amnesty International. At the time she was on the Governance Team of Amnesty International New Zealand, and soon to be elected to the International Executive Committee that governs the global Amnesty organization. Her story showed me what it means to stand up for human rights, how lucky we are in New Zealand that we have comparatively strong human rights framework, but also what needs to be done to make it more robust.

In the state that the world currently finds itself, I think about what Vanushi told me, and others at the 2005 and 2006 Annual Meetings of the New Zealand section. In the nearly 21 years since, I spent 2005-2020 actively involved with Amnesty myself. We campaigned across a vast array of issues, from the mass murder of many by the Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, to the truly dystopian North Korean prison camp system and in particular, the Yodok camp; from American and British enabled Saudi war crimes in Yemen, to the Islamic State atrocities. And although my involvement has slowed somewhat since then, seeing Vanushi and others who have experienced first-hand what state oppression looks like, use what they learned to push back against it, has inspired me to do likewise.

Vanushi Walters is uniquely qualified to hold the role she now finds herself in. It will be a challenging one in a global environment where New Zealand needs to start looking out for its own interests, as much as helping our south Pacific neighbours and walking the Sino-American tight rope. Outside of Amnesty, she has written a Masters thesis in International Law. She has worked on numerous issues with one of New Zealand’s most prominent law firms, (Mai) Chen & (Sir Geoffrey) Palmer, (the latter being a former Prime Minister in the latter days of the 4th Labour Government, and a constitutional commentator).

This may seem like an endorsement of Vanushi. It is an acknowledgement of her rise to a position that I think she can take on, but will need the gumption to make tough choices that I have not seen of any Minister of Foreign Affairs in recent years, including the current Minister, Winston Peters. The current situation is sufficiently dynamic that I am honestly not certain if any New Zealand M.P. has the necessary nous to deal with what is unfolding in the Middle East, the ramifications of it in terms of foreign affairs and other areas of policy making

In earlier articles about foreign policy, I have written of the need to be bold and not afraid to take more of a third way approach. I stand by all of that. I stand by it because even former Prime Minister Helen Clark, for all her talk about the need for an independent foreign policy, did not promote a truly New Zealand foreign policy – one that really put our needs, and those who matter most to us, first. I do not expect that this will all evolve in one term of Parliament or even a couple, but I would like to think that a generation from now, because of an election result in 2026, that New Zealand is standing back a bit from both America and China, looking at alternative paths with other countries.

It also needs to be said that as an Opportunity Party supporter, I want to see what our policy looks like before I comment any further. The last foreign policy in 2023 was comparatively mellow, but I think was put down to being a significantly smaller party trying to priortize its policy platform, and being realistic. In 2026 with 26 candidates announced, and more coming, I am expecting a more robust policy to come up.

One that might put both Vanushi and Winston Peters to the test.

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