"New Zealand at the United Nations"

Friday May 9 was the initial first half of the UNANZ conference, which as mentioned, was held at parliament in the Legislative Council Chamber. To begin, the conference was opened by MP Dr. Kennedy Graham, and then the National President of UNANZ, Graham Hassall. This was when I had to step up my game and snag some quality photos! Graham had told me that he wanted some detailed close up shots, and assured me that no one would be offended if I was blocking their view.

The first speaker for the conference was one of the most interesting in my opinion. Ms Charlotte Darlow is from The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She spoke about how New Zealand has been contributing to the United Nations and the role that is has to play. She also spoke of the chances New Zealand has at gaining a seat on the UN Security Council. New Zealand is up against Italy and Turkey. Even though New Zealand is the smallest out of the 3, Charlotte was confident that New Zealand still had a good chance at gaining a seat because of New Zealand's stability as a country, and its anti-nuclear views which is shared and supported by a lot of other countries in the world.

The second speaker was Rachael Milicich from Statistics New Zealand. Rachael was followed by Col. Martin Dransfield from the New Zealand Defence Force. He spoke about what it means to work as a Peacekeeper for the New Zealand Army. One of the areas he concentrated on was work that NZ Peacekeepers had been doing in Bougainville and East Timor.