Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says National MPs she's spoken with want to support a stronger stance on sanctions against Israel but are too terrified to take on their party leadership.
Swarbrick lodged a member's bill in December last year which would impose sanctions on Israeli Ministers, MPs, military leaders and others in response to what she called its “unlawful occupation of Palestine”.
It has support from all opposition parties, so the votes of just six backbench government MPs would mean it could skip the “biscuit tin” ballot and be brought to Parliament for a first reading, Swarbrick said.
She told Mata with Mihingarangi: "All we need is six of 68 government MPs to get it on the floor of the House ... I've spoken to a number of National MPs in particular and ... they're telling me, and look I'll be crystal clear about this, they're telling me that they're terrified about the future of their career because the indication that they've got from their leadership is that if they were to stick their neck out and do the right thing here they would be losing their place on the pecking order.
"And my question, that I've put back to them is: What the hell is the point of your job?"
Standing Order 288 allows MPs who are not ministers or under-secretaries to indicate their support for a member's bill.
If at least 61 MPs get behind it, the legislation skips the "biscuit tin".
If six government MPs indicated their support for this bill it would be the first time this process was followed.
The government has been approached for comment about Swarbrick’s claims.
Late last month Foreign Minister Winston Peters called for a ceasefire in Gaza in a statement delivered in Parliament, but stopped short of promising further aid funding, or promising to join efforts to prevent weapons being sold to Israel.
His speech coincided with New Zealand supporting a joint statement with 27 other countries calling for a ceasefire, and condemning the "drip-feeding of aid, and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children".
A week later the coalition government signed an additional joint statement with 14 other countries expressing a willingness to recognise the State of Palestine as a necessary step towards a two-State solution.
In the past fortnight, the UK, France and Canada have all indicated plans to recognise Palestine as a state. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said those moves reward "Hamas's monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims".
The Israeli military campaign, launched in response to a deadly attack by Hamas on October 7 2023, has continued for almost two years. Famine is now unfolding as a result of aid to Gaza being blocked. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which coordinates aid deliveries in Gaza, said last week the population needed more than 62,000 tonnes of food aid per month. In the past two months it had been able to deliver about 22,000 tonnes of food aid - just one-sixth of what was needed.
Swarbrick says there's a need for more than speeches and statements.
"Gazans can't eat empty words, and this government has, for the better part of two years now, said that they're doing everything they can as they make statements and sit on their hands.
"The very least that we could possibly do is apply the same standard that we did to Russia for its unlawful invasions into and occupation of Ukraine.
"That's why we drafted the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions bill which, after a year plus of waiting for the government to do something we put into the biscuit tin to remove any of the excuses.
"The other important thing to note about the process we initiated by putting this into the biscuit tin is that we no longer need Winston Peters, Christopher Luxon or that other guy. We just need six of 68 government MPs to say that they are willing to stand by their conscience and do the right thing in the face of a genocide being live streamed to each of us 24/7 on our phones."
Netanyahu has said Israel’s military pressure against Hamas was to secure the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas during the 7 October attack.
Israel continues to deny accusations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. South Africa has taken a case of genocide against Israel to the International Court of Justice, the case remains ongoing.
The attack in 2023 left about 1200 people dead, with more than 250 hostages taken, and reports of widespread rapes.
