Labour calls on Government to appropriate an Air NZ plane

Talk about spewing words out in a panic. Maryan Street is reported as saying:

Labour Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maryan Street said New Zealand should do what other governments were doing and charter or provide an aircraft.

“It is not good enough for the government simply to sit back and say we will give the British or the Americans a call if necessary, to see if they can bump our people up their list,” she said.

“A government’s very first responsibility is the defence of its citizens and this government is sitting on its hands while Kiwi families are at real risk of danger in Cairo right now.

“The embassy has told people to leave but are not being given the resources to help them do exactly that,” she said.

“The government could charter a plane faster than it could send a 757 to get there. It could even divert or appropriate an Air New Zealand plane out of London which could get to Cairo quickly.

Yes that is a Labour MP calling for the Government to forcibly appropriate NZ001 and divert it to Cairo. I’m not sure what power she thinks the Government can do this under – maybe the Canterbury Earthquake legislation!