Rod Donald, co-leader of the New Zealand Green Party, died today. Tomorrow the new Parliament, including him, was due to be sworn in. His death is a terrible loss for his family, the Green Party, and wider New Zealand.

He was a man of strong principles and his death has shocked many in this nation, including myself. I really respected his views, and although we had different policy ideas in some areas, he argued his case strongly and with a lot of style and humour.

This is important news because the loss of a co-leader for the Greens will be very hard and the death of any parliamentary representative is a huge deal for a nation. To those that knew him, my deepest condolences.

The thing about politics is that in reality, on a very personal level, our parliamentary representatives are elected leaders and although there's bickering on policies, there is a lot of cross-party friendship. This is a sad loss for New Zealand.

New Zealand has created terrorism suppression legislation in a country where there are no terrorists, and the only terrorist attack was twenty years ago. New Zealand has profile as a good international citizen, and this is summarised in the concluding remarks of every report made to the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee. These remind the Security Council Committee of the role that New Zealand plays in the military, intelligence, and political support of the counter-terrorism efforts and the humanitarian assistance it provides. However, the argument that New Zealand is implementing this merely because it wants to continue its role as a good international citizen is far too simplistic.

An argument that states are implementing this legislation because of coercive fear holds much more weight, when considered against the public submissions made to the New Zealand Government, and around the world on similar Acts. States are coerced into implementation because of the fear that being left out will lead to an attack. New Zealand is unlikely to see a large-scale terrorist attack occur in its territory in the next ten years, but it has implemented UN Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) because the government is afraid of an attack. It may also be ‘afraid’ of what would happen to its status if this implementation did not occur. Terrorism is about creating widespread fear and panic. Resolution 1373 (2001) has been implemented as a result of coercive fear, and the USA, Spain, and UK fear escalating attacks on their territory. Australia is concerned about not having top security during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006. New Zealand is aware that it might eventually become a target. In experiencing these fears, the states are perpetuating the fear created by acts of terrorism