United New Zealand leader, Hon Peter Dunne, wants an urgent debate in Parliament on the Fijian crisis and New Zealand's response to it.

He has written to Parliament's Speaker, Jonathan Hunt, requesting that an urgent debate be held when the House resumes on Tuesday.

Mr Dunne says New Zealand's primary responsibility is to its citizens and residents and their immediate families, especially those stranded in Fiji, and he is concerned that the New Zealand Government is not moving decisively enough in this area.

"The political situation in Fiji is of course extremely tense, and I understand our Government's reluctance to become to enmeshed, before things clarify."

"However, that same caution should not extend to the humanitarian aspect, especially where the immediate families of New Zealand citizens and residents still in Fiji are concerned."

"In this respect the Government's caution is coming to look more and more like timidity, and relying on the hope that things will get back to normal fairly soon, so that New Zealand will not have to do anything."

"Whatever Fiji's immediate political future, there is a looming humanitarian crisis which New Zealand cannot ignore," he says.

Mr Dunne is calling on the Government to adopt a four point plan for dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Fiji:

• Extend the same offer to Fijian citizens as was made to recently to those from Zimbabwe (i.e., access to a 9 months visitors visa upon arrival in New Zealand);
  
  
• Take immediate steps to provide safe passage to New Zealand for all Fijian citizens holding New Zealand residency permits;
  
  
• Facilitate permanent residence applications on humanitarian grounds by Fijian citizens currently in New Zealand and whose safety is at risk;
  
  
• Allow Fijian citizens with family and relatives in New Zealand the immediate right of entry to New Zealand.

"The longer the Government delays, the greater the risk to personal security becomes, and I believe we have an overwhelming humanitarian responsibility to assist where we can those who have been put at risk by this coup attempt," Mr Dunne says.

ENDS