Parliament is set to debate the Iraq crisis this afternoon, Speaker of the House Jonathan Hunt said today.
Opposition parties have been seeking an urgent debate on the matter for several weeks but the Government has blocked them.
Mr Hunt, who chairs Parliament's cross-party business committee, said the committee had this morning agreed a debate was warranted.
"The decision was made that there will be a debate at 2pm and all parties will be involved in the debate," he told NZPA.
Prime Minister Helen Clark this morning said it had always been the Government's view that there should be a debate when war was imminent.
"But if there's agreement that the debate on it should occur today that's fine but as everyone knows there is the domestic business of New Zealand to get on with as well, and that ranks highly in the Government's mind," she told National Radio.
A spokesman for ACT leader Richard Prebble said he would move a motion at the end of the debate calling for Parliament to disassociate itself from the United Nations' position.
"It calls on the New Zealand Government to offer all practical support to the coalition of the willing," the spokesman told NZPA.
- NZPA
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