United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill, Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill

I present the legislative statements on the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill and the Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Those legislative statements are published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

I move, That the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill and the Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill be now read a third time.

These two bills have undergone the scrutiny of the parliamentary process. Following the first reading in July, the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill was referred to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, where it was exhaustively examined. The committee recommended that the bill proceed with a limited number of amendments related to Part 5 of the bill, “Apple transitional export quota”. Further technical amendments were also made for clarity and consistency.

At the committee stage, Part 5 was split out from the rest of the bill, creating two bills: the United Kingdom Free Trade Legislation Bill and the Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill. This split accords with Standing Order 317, given Part 5 creates a completely new legislative framework in whole, whereas other parts amend existing legislation. Part 5 will also be repealed earlier than other parts of the bill as the apple quota will only be enforced until the end of the third year that the free-trade agreement (FTA) is in force. Beyond that, there will be no restrictions.

It is a pleasure to speak in support of these two bills and in support of the gold standard New Zealand - United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and I’d like to acknowledge the high commissioner, who is in the House today. Thank you for the support.

The UK FTA is a high-quality, inclusive, and precedent-setting agreement. It contains important benefits for New Zealand, benefits for our exporters, for our small and medium enterprises, for Māori, for the environment and much more. Our two countries have a uniquely close bond, including a significant connection between Māori and the UK, given the role of the British Crown as one of the original signatories of the Treaty of Waitangi. Ours is a partnership grounded in common traditions, experiences, and values, strengthened and maintained by deep people-to-people links and made relevant by close cooperation across the entire spectrum of engagement: economic, health, science, innovation, sport, defence, and security. This FTA forms an important new cornerstone—the cornerstone of the contemporary relationship between New Zealand and the UK.

The free-trade agreement is a key component of New Zealand’s trade recovery strategy, which recognises that trade is a key driver of our economy from the economic impacts of COVID-19. It is another big step in providing future economic security for our entire nation. It’s also a representation of this Government’s Trade For All agenda, an approach to ensure that the benefits of trade are channelled to all sectors of our society. I believe that this is the true test of the value of any free-trade agreement.

Trade is also important for building a high-wage, low-emissions economy that supports economic security. New Zealand’s work to provide strategic trade depths, through concluding a series of free-trade agreements with key partners, provides New Zealanders with as many trading opportunities and options as possible. Pursuing high-quality and ambitious FTAs is a key to strengthening New Zealand’s trade architecture and resilience under this strategy. The UK FTA is a significant addition to New Zealand’s FTA network and will contribute to our diversified trade portfolio, assisting New Zealand’s recovery from the economic impacts of COVID-19.

The free-trade agreement will also deliver preferential access to the UK’s $3 trillion consumer market, with over 67 million people, for the first time in nearly 50 years since the UK entered the European Community in 1973. The FTA will create the conditions for New Zealand trade to grow, particularly in areas where it has previously been constrained due to very high tariffs such as beef and dairy, and in new innovative sectors such as gaming and fintech.

The market access package that we have agreed is among the very best New Zealand has secured in an FTA. At full implementation, the UK will eliminate all tariffs on all New Zealand exports, and 99.5 percent of current New Zealand exports will enter the UK duty-free on the first day the FTA is in force, thanks to a combination of tariff elimination and sizeable duty-free quotas. At full implementation, the FTA is expected to boost the New Zealand economy by between $700 million and $1 billion, with New Zealand annual exports to the UK estimated to grow by over 50 percent or by up to, we think, $2.2 billion, and I’m sure it will go beyond that.

The FTA contains significant outcomes for matters of interest to Māori, recognising the importance that Māori place on this agreement. This includes a dedicated trade and economic cooperation chapter that will create a platform for cooperation on a range of issues important to Māori, the inclusion of Māori perspectives and concepts in the environment chapter, and, importantly, the preamble to the FTA recognises the unique relationship between Māori and the British Crown as an original signatory to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi. As with all FTAs since 2001, the agreement includes New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi exception that ensures that nothing in the FTA would prevent a New Zealand Government from meeting its obligations to Māori. In addition, the UK FTA does not constrain the New Zealand Government’s right to regulate for legitimate public policy purposes.

The deal includes new guarantees of market access and more certainty for our services exporters, investors, and for Kiwi businesses wanting to access the UK Government’s procurement market. It will establish a level playing field for New Zealand businesses operating in investing in the UK. We’ve also agreed to cooperate with the UK in a range of areas, including the digital trade, to assist our growing tech sector. As the first FTA launched and concluded under New Zealand’s Trade For All agenda, this FTA sets high ambition commitments in inclusive and sustainable trade. Trade For All principles and priorities were embedded in New Zealand’s approach to the negotiations from the outset and are clearly reflected in the final outcomes. This is New Zealand’s first bilateral free-trade agreement to include a dedicated chapter on trade and gender equality to support women’s economic empowerment. We’ve also secured equality outcomes on trade and development, small and medium enterprises, trade and labour, and anti-corruption.

The FTA also includes far-reaching commitments on trade and the environment. This includes including concrete steps to eliminate subsidies on fossil fuels, provisions to combat overfishing, and specific articles on climate change. The trade and environment chapter will prioritise the elimination of tariffs on over 290 environmentally beneficial products. This is a significant list and is the largest ever agreed by either New Zealand or the UK. I believe trade holds the solution to many global challenges, and our trade and environment chapter is a significant step in addressing climate change at this critical time.

Given the difficulties both of COVID-19 and the challenges to the international trading system, the achievement of this gold standard deal cannot be overstated and speaks to New Zealand’s long history of negotiating high-quality and inclusive trade agreements. The FTA sends an important signal of New Zealand’s openness to trade and signals our ability and commitment to progress and conclude trade agreements that deliver for New Zealand. The UK FTA is one of the best deals New Zealand has signed and will assist the development of stronger trade, economic, cultural, and people-to-people links between our countries. The UK is also in the process of acceding to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and this is a further welcome development. The fact that a G7 economy like the UK is interested in joining CPTPP highlights the value of the agreement and the rules-based trading system.

New Zealand is supportive, as we’ve said all along, for the UK joining the CPTPP as it will build on this bilateral free-trade agreement. It will further deepen trade linkages and embed UK in the economic architecture of the Indo-Pacific region. There are a limited number of legislative and regulatory amendments that are required to align New Zealand’s domestic law with certain obligations in this free-trade agreement. The United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill and the Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill will both enable New Zealand to implement its obligations under this FTA.

I’d just like to finally say that I must compliment the many, many officials in New Zealand and in the UK, as well, for their commitment. A lot of this occurred by way of Zoom, which was a new and challenging process that required a huge amount of trust. Those officials carried that out in an absolutely professional manner, and I want to thank them—Brad Burgess in particular, who led the charge, but the whole team at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I’d also like to acknowledge, as I have, the commitments of both Liz Truss and Anne-Marie Trevelyan in the UK as Ministers who championed this agreement, and I hope that the passage of legislation in the UK will enable this bill to be brought into force as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Madam Speaker, thank you very much. For any country in the world that believes in the importance of trade, of bringing down barriers, of getting rid of regulation and red tape and that the private sector will create relationships to produce things that people around the world want and produce them efficiently, then today in this House is an important day. This is a very high-quality agreement. It sends a signal to other countries’ Governments who protect themselves and their industries because they believe it is good for their economy that, actually, when like-minded countries come together and spend time talking about how to make it easier for their citizens to trade with each other, there is greater benefit in that than protection. All over the world we see that when countries protect their economies, they don’t grow as quickly as they should, their citizens are not as well-off as they might be, and the opportunity that every Government should be trying to present to its citizens is just not there.

I want to congratulate our officials on both sides of this agreement—in New Zealand and in the United Kingdom—for the judicious work they have done to make sure that we send a signal on the importance of trade between the United Kingdom and New Zealand to other countries that they may use this as a model as they go forward and negotiate to liberalise, to bring down barriers, and to actually help. The Minister mentioned that he thinks or believes that most problems in the world can be solved through trade. If only that was true. However, I do agree with him that generally where countries trade together there is less likely to be conflict, and there are many more reasons for them to cooperate than for them not to. So in this respect, with our friends in the United Kingdom, today we do a very, very good thing.

I’d like, rather than talking about the detail of this agreement—because that’s been traversed over previous readings in the House—to talk a little bit about the history and what this means. If we go back to after the last war, New Zealand became heavily reliant upon the United Kingdom for most of our farming exports. And, indeed, when lamb was able to leave the shores of New Zealand and be refrigerated on ships and arrive in the UK market and into their shops, prosperity in New Zealand grew quite quickly. It shows that when you produce high-quality goods and services and are able to sell them outside of your shores, it benefits a country, it benefits the economy, and it benefits citizens, people. And, indeed, much effort was put in to developing the UK as a market and New Zealand was doing well. We jump forward to when the UK decided that it wanted to join what was then the Common Market with a small group of European continental countries and our access to the UK overnight was more than restricted. It dried up and New Zealand was faced with a significant challenge, producing high-quality food for a market, for one market overseas, that we no longer had access to.

Two things happened then. Advice from officials and our trade experts was that we needed to engage with European communities and find ways to access that wider market for New Zealand exporters. In that we were successful, but it did not replace completely what we had lost in the change of the trading relationship with the United Kingdom. The second thing that was decided early on and by successive Governments’ work was the need to diversify so that we were no longer reliant ever again on any one nation or any one area of the world or any one product or produce from New Zealand.

Today, in putting this legislation through Parliament, we are rectifying some of the challenges that remained for all of the time since the UK joined the European Community, because, actually, our access to the UK markets for our export now is the same if not better than it was back then, because there are many more areas in the New Zealand economy that produce goods and services that the UK market will want. And so it is a long time coming but it is very, very good for New Zealand exporters. Where people are able to produce high-quality goods competitively and productively and export them to a market that they can rely upon, then New Zealand flourishes and does well.

Trade agreements are about certainty and dependability. The two sides in this area have made commitments to each other, and our business community can now rely upon those as they invest or they change the way they produce to pivot towards the UK market, or, for British producers, towards New Zealand. That certainty also grows economies, which creates jobs and creates a higher standard of living for New Zealanders as it will for people in the United Kingdom.

I want to say that I’m very pleased that this Government has been able to deliver on this. It was a long time coming. In fact, it was around 2016 or slightly before, when the UK was talking about the referendum and that they might leave the European Community, that New Zealand started to engage with the UK. I had the privilege for a period of time of being the trade Minister and I visited the UK on many occasions to make sure the door was open to talk about the type of thing we should do if the UK was to leave the European Union, and to say to them that, along with the European Union, a trade deal with them would be a priority for New Zealand.

I was very pleased therefore in 2016, I think it was, when the then trade secretary Liam Fox confirmed for the very first time that New Zealand along with Australia would be the first cab off the rank once the UK left the European Union to do a high-quality free-trade agreement. And then the debate went to the quality of that deal, because, as with many parts of Europe, farmers are not as sure as they are in New Zealand of the benefits of free trade, because they have grown up very much in a system of protection and subsidy.

I must say to farmers in the United Kingdom, that whilst they may still hold reservations about whether or not allowing access for New Zealand farmers to their market is in their best interests, it absolutely is. In New Zealand, if we continue to have protection of our farmers and continue to provide subsidies to them, then, actually, agriculture wouldn’t be as innovative here as it is, we wouldn’t be seeking out the markets we should, and we wouldn’t be competing more than fairly, and doing well on the world stage. And so New Zealand welcomes United Kingdom farmers in their efforts to look further than their own market in the European Union to other areas of the world. The world continues to want high-quality protein. They continue to want safe food. They look for food security for their populations. And the UK and New Zealand together can go out and actually provide so very much of that.

An example of how things have changed was when I had an opportunity in London to visit a small New Zealand company called Allpress, and some of you will have the smell of their coffee on your breath at this very moment. In, I think, the east of London, they have set up a roastery there where they roast a coffee, they serve it in a cafe, they sell it around the UK, and they sell their coffee to other parts of Europe. Who would have thought that a small New Zealand company would be roasting coffee in the United Kingdom market and selling it to them? We don’t grow a lot of coffee in New Zealand, but the returns that they get from the work they put in come back to New Zealand and they grow our economy. They have greater certainty now because of this agreement and others in New Zealand have the opportunity to emulate what they’ve done and do a similar thing.

If I may, I will finish by mentioning two officials in particular, but there are very many that have worked towards this success. The first is Crawford Falconer, who was a long-time trade negotiator in New Zealand, very senior. He had done many jobs within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and had left to go to the private sector. When the UK left the European Union, Crawford applied for a job and he became their chief trade negotiator. And so we have a New Zealander sitting there in the corridors of power in London advising them upon trade. That in part is the reason this is such a high-quality agreement. I also did want to recognise Brad Burgess, who headed up this negotiation. This is a significant success for Brad. He, along with many others, is of extremely high quality, very professional, and I thank him and all the others from New Zealand who have put in hours and hours and hours of effort and made commitment over the last four or five years to deliver this. It’s a very good day for free trade. It’s a very good day for those who believe in free trade. It sends a signal to the world and I congratulate the UK and New Zealand for achieving this.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to take a call on the United Kingdom free-trade agreement legislation bills. The Minister, the Hon Damien O’Connor, has described this as a gold standard agreement that is going to benefit New Zealand a lot. It’s an agreement that is going to deliver for our environment, for our small business enterprises, for our women, and for our indigenous people as well.

The UK is the sixth-biggest economy in the world, which is worth about $3.7 billion, and New Zealand has everything to win from this agreement. It will also strengthen the relationship that’s already warm and strong as well. This agreement means that the UK will eliminate all tariffs on New Zealand exports, with duties removed on 99.5 percent of current trade from entry into force. This will provide New Zealand exporters with more favourable access to the UK market. The agreement will save approximately $37 million every year on goods exports. The economic modelling estimates that the UK exports will increase by 50 percent. This will provide a boost to New Zealand GDP by about $700 million, and $1 billion once it’s fully implemented. It will also cut red tape, allowing New Zealand exports into the UK market on a level playing field—duties and all tariffs removed on 99.5 percent.

Climate change is a big winner in this agreement. It eliminates fisheries subsidies and takes steps to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies as well. It promotes sustainable agriculture and underlines the urgent need to address climate change. Animal welfare provisions are also included and recognise both countries’ commitments—New Zealand’s first bilateral trade deal to include an article on climate change. This also allows the New Zealand Government to reserve the right to regulate and target interests. Visas for business persons make it easier for people to get into the UK, with a specific category that includes their family members as well. The investment provisions provide certainty and stability regarding market access in both countries. Intellectual property agreements to extend the copyright terms by 20 years—15 years to implement these changes.

As many have said, this is a big deal for New Zealand. We are a trading nation at the bottom of the Pacific Islands and we have a lot to gain from this agreement. I’d like to thank the Minister for his hard work. Actually, he travelled when COVID was still raging around, potentially risking his life, but he prioritised this and he got it over the line. I’d like to thank the officials, who worked hard, who worked around the clock to make sure that this deal was reached. Globalisation has made everything, movement from countries to countries, from continents to continents, very smooth, and freight is very competitive. The UK leaving the European Union means that New Zealand has managed to get this opportunity to sign this agreement with the UK. So, again, I’d like to commend everyone who worked hard on this and made this possible. It’s a good day for New Zealand, it’s a winner for New Zealand, and I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to be talking on the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill and the Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill in their third readings—what a great name. I know that the original bill was split into two bills, and that’s why we we’ve got both of them. But first of all, I just want to say what a good thing this is: a long time in the making, and, obviously, a long history of trade with the UK. We’ve been there and we’ve been away, and now this agreement brings New Zealand back into a direct bilateral relationship with the UK, rather than having to deal through the EU. It is a real milestone, as the Minister talked about in his speech.

England, of course, when you look at the markets around the world, is one of the crucial markets for New Zealand exports, and an important one, particularly, is New Zealand products. Whilst we have a strong agricultural focus and always will in New Zealand, and a lot of that goes to the UK, as the New Zealand economy diversifies into new areas I think the opportunity to deal with more high-tech, advanced manufacturing products, whether that’s in food or in related industries of advanced manufacturing—to trade with places such as the UK is an absolutely fundamental outlet for New Zealand. It’s something that we value very significantly, and I think reflects the strong and enduring relationship that New Zealand has had with Britain over the years.

It’s interesting; I was just looking at the stats and I was trying to work through the specific details, and, obviously, when the agreement comes into force, 62.5 percent of dairy products going in will be subject to tariff. But with the changes, what’s going to happen is that within five years butter tariffs will be removed, and that means that we can start sending bigger volumes of butter tariff-free; 10 years for beef; and, of course, the more thorny issue that has always been very difficult for UK farmers is the issue of lamb. New Zealand lamb, which obviously is an absolutely premium product and one that’s very marketable and wanted by the UK consumer—that has a 15-year lead-in period.

So, initially, it’s most of our products going in, but over time—within five years—99.5 percent of all products currently exported from New Zealand to Britain will be tariff-free, and by year seven it will be getting close to 100 percent. So it’s very important in terms of reducing the tariff, which is obviously quite a barrier and means that New Zealand producers have to carry that cost, but it also opens up the British market. As the Minister said, I’m sure that the value of this free-trade agreement, valued currently at between $700 and a couple of billion dollars, will grow over time, and let’s hope it does, because New Zealand is a trading nation. It’s absolutely essential that we have good trading access to many jurisdictions around the world. Like any company, we need to have diversified markets. We need to have good quality markets and markets that offer security, continuity, and the opportunity to sell product at a high value, and that comes back to selling a product that consumers want and demand that their retailers offer, particularly in places like the UK. So I think that’s good.

Obviously, the speaker before mentioned some of the other aspects, and the Minister referred to this agreement capturing the issue of Māori rights and protecting those in the free-trade agreement, which is significant. The area that I do just want to talk about is, first of all, the copyright rules. As we move forward, the use of intellectual property—the capturing of the value of intellectual property—is so fundamental to the future of New Zealand. Most companies listed on the stock exchange—if we look at their value, most of it comes from the use of intellectual property, and the value of their intellectual property or intellectual assets, and this bill does deal with copyright issues. What it does is, first of all, it introduces a new artist resale right; within two years that will be put in place. But it also extends copyright and related rights terms to 15 years, and, obviously, that’s legislation that will have to go through the House, complementary to this free-trade agreement. There are a number of bills that will have to go through to put all the elements of this free-trade agreement into force, but protecting the copyright rights of artists, in particular, is an important part of it, and I think that in New Zealand we need to make sure that we are focusing much more importantly on intellectual assets, because they are the real drivers of value in the future and will increasingly be so.

The other aspect is allowing investment from UK firms into New Zealand. There’s going to be a change. Currently, Australia has the special exemption. If you are an Australian company wishing to invest in New Zealand, you have the right to invest without, broadly, going through the Overseas Investment Office approval process, up to a value of New Zealand assets of $500 million. There are some complications if it involves land, but in the main what it does is give Australians preferential opportunity to invest in New Zealand companies. Everyone else has largely been operating under a $100 million threshold if they want to invest in New Zealand. This bill introduces an increased threshold for UK companies coming into New Zealand, at $200 million.

I think this is really significant. If you look at renewable energy, we have a number of UK solar companies now trying to invest in New Zealand. They’re captured under the foreign investment rules at the moment, and one of the perverse things that’s been starting to occur as we’re trying to attract solar investment in New Zealand, both domestically—we’ve got a lot of domestic firms that want to invest in solar, as one particular area of renewable. But with foreigners, the current requirements are that you have to assess the lease cost that’s paid by a foreign firm such as a UK solar investor and gross that up, and if it exceeds $100 million of rental income over the period of the lease agreement for the land where the solar installations are based, then that’s captured under the Overseas Investment Office rules, currently, which is increasingly a bit of a barrier. By increasing the threshold to $200 million, this is, hopefully, going to allow for more investment from overseas because it’s investing capital. That’s not to say that New Zealanders can’t do it as well, but we need renewables in New Zealand, and I think this is going to be a helpful aspect in terms of helping to grow New Zealand investment in that area.

The apple quota management is a separate part. As I mentioned before, it allows for the New Zealand Apple and Pear Board to create and operate a quota system for New Zealand exports. It is important that we have the right sort of system in place. Obviously, apples have been a very significant issue for New Zealand in terms of exporting, and, particularly—

💬 Anna Lorck: Absolutely fantastic. They’re grown in Hawke’s Bay.

I hear the member for Tukituki referring to the Hawke’s Bay. We’ve got some fantastic exporters of apples round the world, and we need to make sure it’s a growing industry and a very important industry.

So look, this can only be described as a great outcome for New Zealand. We need to diversify our markets. We need to continue to find good markets. This is a good market, it’s good for New Zealand, it’s good for the UK, and it builds some strong relationships. I commend both the Minister and his team for completing this trade agreement, but I do also acknowledge my colleague the Hon Todd McClay and officials that have been involved in this process. It’s a good outcome, and let’s hope that we’re going to see more of these high-quality trade agreements put in place between New Zealand and other countries around the world. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. What a pleasure it is on a Thursday morning to speak at the third reading of these significant bills, which my colleague across the House has also mentioned were split into two as a result of the Minister’s Supplementary Order Paper. I join with colleagues across the House in commending the Minister for Trade and Export on his significant work in securing this agreement. I also congratulate my colleagues in the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for their examination of the content of this bill, as well. This is an agreement that many have called a gold standard, and that it very much is. Free-trade agreements are, in many ways, the key relationship broker internationally.

I have a habit of, I guess, making sense of the world through metaphor. For me in my 20s, I travelled very frequently to the UK and many places in the world while I was appointed to the board of Amnesty International. It was a time when I was thinking very much about the role that free-trade agreements played in the international space, but it was also a time when I travelled with one item consistently, and it was the multi-plug. For me, I very much see the role that many free-trade agreements play in the international space as being that multi-plug—that framework or that structure that allows us to interact easily with other economies. While I think most people believe that it is purely about economic interaction, the truth of the multi-plug is that there are also significant implications in terms of those frameworks on human rights, on security, and on the security of pipelines for basic goods and services as well. So this is a critical development for New Zealand and for the UK as well.

Pre-COVID, the two-way goods and services trade between the UK and New Zealand was assessed at about $6 billion. This free-trade agreement will provide New Zealand exporters with more favourable access to the UK market, helping to build our trade back up to pre-COVID levels and beyond. In a moment, I’ll speak to some of the detail of what this will mean in practice for some of our key industries in New Zealand.

But I wanted to just stay at the high level for a moment, because I think it is tempting to see free-trade agreements in isolation—very much as the multi-plug that I just described. But, in truth, what we’re looking at is almost an ecosystem of multi-plugs, or a web, where you have hard sets of tariffs but also softer trade provisions which then determine not only the flow of trade but security of supply chains, management of the total economic risk, and the ESG—or environmental, social, and governance standards—that we want to champion in any given space. So if we think of the tariffs and non-tariff barriers as sort of the hard infrastructure or the brick walls of trade, they can either hinder or facilitate trade flows based on their height and how they’re adjusted between partners but also across the web in totality. Similarly, the technical standards, the export controls, the transparency requirements, the investment reviews, the labour and environmental standards—those softer infrastructures can seem less obvious, but sometimes they can be a more important influence on how and where trade flows. So two levers between multiple players will ultimately determine how the world operates in terms of economic growth, human rights protection, environmental protections, and, ultimately, fairness.

I think what I’ve been proud of is seeing the elements of ESG—environmental, social, and governance—concerns being echoed through our trade discussions with various partners. We see it in this agreement. Colleagues have spoken to it in terms of the climate provisions and the animal welfare provisions. I can certainly hear that being echoed in pre-agreement discussions around the Pacific as well. Once again, I would commend our leadership, our Minister, for raising those issues internationally.

If we now look at some of the detail of what this means for industry in New Zealand, the Minister mentioned that tariffs will be eliminated on 100 percent of New Zealand’s goods and exports to the UK eventually. But I think what’s really exciting is that on day one—on day one—99.5 percent of our current New Zealand trade to the UK will enter duty-free, and that is extremely exciting. It’s exciting for various industries like our gin, chocolate, motorhome, and campervan industries, which are currently subject to tariffs ranging between 5 to 10 percent.

It’s exciting for our horticulture industry, as well. I see the member for Tukituki turning around and saying “apples”—absolutely. It is very important for our regions: 99.9 percent of New Zealand’s current horticultural trade will enter the UK duty-free at entry into force, and 100 percent within seven years. That is huge. The tariffs on wine, honey, onions, and kiwifruit will be eliminated from day one. This is significant.

We will then see a follow-on in our fish and seafood industry. About 46 percent of New Zealand’s current fish and seafood trade will enter the UK duty-free at entry into force of the agreement, and 99.5 percent within three years, with 100 percent at seven years.

This is significant for so many industries. It was useful to hear a colleague from across the House also speak to some other industries which will be hugely benefiting, as well. I noted our recording artists being able to actively protect their interests overseas so that music can’t just be played freely internationally without repercussions—without people getting to exercise their ownership rights in that space.

Once again, this is an extremely exciting and it’s an extremely significant change for New Zealand. Once again, I would commend the Minister for his work on this and I would commend these bills to the House.

Madam Speaker.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): I call Golriz Ghahraman.

💬 Hon Member: She’s up.

Sorry—it is a pleasure to stand at the right slot to speak to this bill at its third reading. We’ve heard a lot about this being a gold standard in trade, and I’ll come back to that because ambition is good. But first, to say that we need trade. New Zealand is a small Island nation. We are far away from much of the world, and we do rely on trade. We need the goods, the produce, our kai moana to be the resource that it can be for our people. We also need to bring in the things that we don’t have from elsewhere in the world.

So trade is good; it underpins a multilateral international culture that we support and we rely on. It underpins a rules-based international order, and trade agreements like this reflect that. They reflect a deep generational development of international law that comes through trade probably most strongly, and I say that as a human rights lawyer, because our laws there aren’t all that hard in enforceability. But trade is, and it reflects what we can be as an international community.

The thing, though, that sticks for us as the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand is that trade must also be sustainable. It must serve the interests of climate and our people, because we do face a global crisis that can actually undermine our wellbeing in every way, not just economically. So we need to know that these very binding, all-encompassing international law documents like this free-trade agreement also support us to face that other global existential crisis.

People talk about how we shouldn’t include too much in these trade agreements and we should leave out the workers’ rights provision and the human rights provision and the environmental chapter. But that ignores the fact that these agreements already in the investor chapter—the really detailed thousands-and-thousands-of-words bit—impact our environmental protections and our workers’ rights, our human rights. It’s already in there. We can’t ignore that. Those rights and privileges of the investors, of the multinationals, of the foreign investors are protected in very enforceable legal language.

In similar agreements, and this one does differ from the likes of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but it’s very similar in the language of the investor chapter and in the language of the environmental chapter so I want to compare the way that enforcement has rolled out in that context—86 percent of cases under the CPTPP with a similar environmental chapter were to enforce investors’ rights over environmental protections that Governments had tried to implement after that agreement had been entered into for their nation. So in Indonesia, they had to abandon a ban on particularly harmful types of mining in their national forests because they couldn’t afford the payout of a foreign investor suing them for their profit losses. That’s why we get worked up about these trade agreements, because they do guarantee enforceable rights for foreign investors that tie the hands of Houses of Representatives like this one in the future.

We don’t know how they continue to influence Governments because not everything is litigated, but it becomes a consideration that will sit with Governments from now on, over and above the movements in Aotearoa for environmental protection, for climate action, for workers’ rights—fair pay agreements—and for human rights. So we do need to look carefully, and we do need to acknowledge that that impact is already there.

It’s nice that there is a preamble nod to things like Māori rights, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and environmental issues. It’s nice that there’s a chapter there, and a line, but they don’t meet the standards of our Trade for All agenda, which the previous Government—with Greens in there as confidence and supply partners, which we are no longer—committed to. It’s a little disappointing that we would commit so much resource from our experts across sectors, including trade experts, to sit down and come up with what sustainable trade looks like for Aotearoa in the future—that they would detail that, and that we would ignore it. So that’s why this gold standard agreement falls short. It doesn’t even accord with our own trade for all agenda, not on the environmental chapter, not on the Māori protections.

I will come to democracy: it doesn’t accord with what those experts and sector-based people told us we need and the Government previously agreed to meet in terms of democratic engagement in the making of trade agreements. The Minister has said that this has had thorough parliamentary scrutiny. Well actually, the bill has, but the trade agreement that underpins it—that already bound us to draft this bill in exactly the way that it was drafted—was drafted, negotiated, and agreed upon in secret, without parliamentary scrutiny, without the type of scrutiny that the Trade for All agenda prescribes.

So we’re still falling short. We know, because we saw it written—though, unfortunately, we weren’t able to hear him—from the late, great Moana Jackson that there wasn’t really any Māori involvement or input in the substance of what it would mean to meet Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations in trade in this agreement. So we can’t say that a gold standard this is, because it’s only a gold standard by comparison to previous agreements that fell so short as to actively cause a global financial crisis.

That’s what we’re trying to move past. We’re trying to acknowledge that trade agreements negotiated in secret—that benefit and protect only the interests of extremely elite, multinational foreign traders—don’t work to sustain economies, they don’t sustain our environment, they don’t sustain our workers, and they certainly don’t meet the standards that we need to meet if we are to decolonise.

So, yes, this is with the UK. We have a close relationship with them—that’s where that relationship comes from. So upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi or falling short is now the defining factor in a new relationship with the United Kingdom. We can’t just rest on what has passed, because what has passed has been generations of breach. We can’t just rest on there being a like-mindedness when we face our next global existential crisis, which is the climate crisis. We need to act differently now, and this doesn’t quite measure up.

It’s good—it has good intentions, and I’m glad people are trying—but it’s disappointing that we have a Trade for All agenda that sits there. It is the gold standard, and we’re so happy still to fall this far short. So, unfortunately, I won’t be commending these bills to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure this morning to rise on behalf of my colleagues in the ACT Party in support of the third reading of the United Kingdom free-trade agreement legislation bills. I’ll start with the obvious: it’s not often that ACT stands in this Chamber and says that we support the Government for legislation that’s going through this House. Quite often, in fact, we find ourselves in severe opposition to the Government. But on the issue of free trade, we are completely in support. And that’s because ACT is the strongest proponent for free trade in this Parliament, and we believe that free trade is important to everybody who lives in New Zealand. I want to take the time to congratulate the Minister for Trade and Export Growth, the Hon Damien O’Connor, for concluding this deal and getting it across the line for all New Zealanders who will benefit in the future.

We are a very, very small country in the scale of the world. We’re a small but mighty nation, but—

💬 Anna Lorck: That’s right, punch above our weight.

We do—we do. We punch above our weight. But, even if you look internationally at countries and people wanting to ship their goods to New Zealand, we are at the end of the world. You know, for shipping line companies, we are literally at the end of the map when it comes to sending their cargo ships and container ships around the world to export and import goods across borders. We are the last port; we’re on the edge of the limb. So for our Kiwi small businesses, they do a lot of really, really good work creating products that see boats and planes come in to New Zealand so that people have goods to export overseas. You know, we’re creating such amazing produce in New Zealand that people can’t help but want to send their ship right to the end of the world to send something back to another country, and I think that shows the pride that we can have in New Zealand businesses.

But we should always, as legislators, be thinking how can we make life even easier and better for our small exporters. And we should always be looking at new markets where we can find export growth potential and ways to increase our market access and ways to increase the productivity of New Zealand businesses. And this means that we need to remove barriers, as well, for international exporters who want to come here, because we need to look at the consumer part of this agreement too. It’s not just exporters that will benefit; it’s New Zealand consumers, and we need to recognise that, you know, while we’re ratifying this deal and we’re looking for market access to grow for New Zealand exporters, there will be the opportunity for market access to grow for importers. That is good for New Zealand consumers who will find that there are more goods on market in our New Zealand stores, and that helps drop the price of goods at the supermarkets and throughout our economy too.

It’s also very important that while ratifying this deal we acknowledge that we’re at a time in history where a lot of countries are becoming more insular and turning away from democracy and turning away from the rest of the world. The threats against democracy are unfortunately increasing, and so we must do our best to seek out more like-minded countries that share our values, that want to trade with us, and do more to create more agreements that will see a benefit to New Zealand exporters, a benefit to New Zealand consumers, and a benefit for democratic values around the world. It’s good that we’ve recently signed the EU free-trade agreement, but there are parts of it that we don’t agree with as a party. But on the whole we’re very happy that it has been signed and we look forward to any future movement that we could see on a deal with India and a deal with the United States. This deal in particular, the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, is a deal that I think will benefit all New Zealanders with a liberal, democratic country that we share an enormous history with. So we should be proud that we have signed this agreement.

Every day thousands and thousands of New Zealanders get up and they provide jobs for other New Zealanders, whether that’s in beef or dairy, fresh fruits, goat meat, sheep, wood, honey, wine, aluminium, software—the list goes on and on. There are so many wonderful industries that exist within our country, and these jobs provide stability to families, they provide purpose to New Zealanders, and they give pride for getting up in the morning—the ability to go to work, have a job, create wealth for the family, and know that they can put food on their own table. But, importantly, it gives pride for people who can start a small business and know that they can grow that business to employ other people and give opportunity and purpose to other people in our society too. Our job in this Chamber is to make sure that we are walking alongside them in that growth and trying to find more opportunities and more jobs where people in New Zealand can succeed. And this free-trade agreement will allow businesses to grow, it will allow for more opportunities, and it will allow for more higher-paying jobs to be created. That can only be good for our exporters, only good for our consumers, and especially when our consumers are going through a cost of living crisis and everything is just getting more and more expensive. This bill will reduce tariffs and that will reduce the price that we pay for goods that come through the border—that’s good for our New Zealanders.

The ACT Party would go further than this United Kingdom free-trade agreement in removing tariffs because we believe that there are unnecessary tariffs that create increased costs for consumers across the border. You know, we have around $200 million of tariffs that are currently imposed on countries throughout the world and people bringing their products into New Zealand every day. The ACT Party just says: what’s the purpose of these? They’re so small and insignificant in some cases, but they’re adding those extra few cents or extra a few dollars to a product that somebody wants to buy for no real purpose. So the ACT Party says that we should drop those and save New Zealanders approximately $200 million a year in costs. I think that would only be good for our economy, for our productivity and for our New Zealand consumers.

One part of this bill that I did want to touch on that the ACT Party really does support is the increase in the investment-screening threshold that we’ve seen increase from $100 million to $200 million for non-Government investors from the UK. This is an area that we, as a party, agree with and would like to see grow even further. And my colleague who’s sitting next to me in the Chamber today, Damien Smith, had a member’s bill—the Overseas Investment (Exempt Investment from OECD Countries) Amendment Bill. Now, we would like to see more investment in New Zealand, not just from the UK, not just from people that we have this fair trade agreement with, but throughout the OECD. And we should allow for more investment—more productivity, more job creation through investment, not just through this bill and the UK but throughout the OECD. And that’s what my colleague’s bill would have done. It’s a shame that the Government didn’t support this, but there’s always another opportunity to see the light.

In conclusion, this bill is good for Kiwi businesses. It’s good for Kiwi consumers. And we commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It gives me pleasure to rise this morning to speak on the UK free-trade agreement and to acknowledge that this morning I had my first primary school, Waipukurau primary, in the House this morning. Looking up and seeing their faces, I was thinking about what I could say about what this free-trade agreement means for everyday New Zealanders, particularly those in regions like mine, of Hawke’s Bay—a region that’s built on the backbone of the export sector. We are a growing region. We are a thriving region that is driven and led by an export economy. The jobs that exporting creates in our region are in the tens of thousands. From the growers to the farmers, from the workers, the processing industry, the logistics industry, and the service businesses that thrive on the back of an export primary sector economy—this is fantastic for our region.

Within the legislation that we are speaking on today, part of it is the Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill. Now, for people who don’t know—but I’m sure most of this House does—Hawke’s Bay is the largest apple-growing region in New Zealand. We grow the best apples and pears for the world. If people come to Hawke’s Bay, they will see apple trees growing and being planted by their tens of thousands. It is an area of our industry that I have been so incredibly proud of. And under this agreement, there is special mention of what it will mean for horticulture, and what it will mean for our Hawke’s Bay region from these free-trade agreements (FTAs).

Now, in looking at what’s happening in the FTA agreement, one of the best documents you can go to is the New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade—where it highlights the UK and New Zealand FTA agreement. New Zealand’s trade relationship with the UK is longstanding; the UK is our seventh-largest partner, with a two-way trade of over $6 billion before COVID. And if we reflect back on what export-driven economies do, again I can come back to what it’s meant for the regions. In Hawke’s Bay alone, our GDP growth is now 8.7 percent of what it was pre-COVID levels, and a significant part of that has been that we’ve been able to keep exporting to the world and keeping people in work while we do that.

We’ve also got a port—Napier Port—within our region, and that’s also a hugely significant part of the reason why Hawke’s Bay does so well. And I must acknowledge that even Simeon Brown from the National Party came to Napier Port recently and could celebrate the opening of the new wharf. It shows that the export economy of Hawke’s Bay, the backbone of our region, is thriving and doing so, so well.

Now, horticultural highlights include our wine tariffs. Now, another reason that Hawke’s Bay is going to benefit so significantly from this FTA agreement is because we grow some of the best grapes and produce some of the best wine for the world too—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Oh, debatable. Debatable motion.

Ha, ha! Any benefit that we can bring to growing the economies of our regions—as well as New Zealand—is going to make sure that we continue to provide added higher value products to the world.

Now, in going through the FTA agreement, it also highlights a range of tariffs that will be reduced immediately. On our wine exports, the product and current tariff and value has been for wine up to $50 per hectolitre, which is 100 litres—with an export value of $463 million, and an export volume of 480,577.6 hectolitres! There you go, hectolitres. Now, the tariff will immediately go off that. And with honey, with an export value—export value to the UK of honey of $74.9 million. Again, when I was thinking about my primary school that was in the House this morning, I was thinking about if I was a school student listening to this debate today, what would I be able to take back; and my learning of how significant the UK is as a trading partner?

And when relating it back to products like honey, onions—8 percent is onions’ export value, $8 million—

💬 Andrew Bayly: Pukekohe!

—again, the tariff will come off those as well. Kiwifruit—8 percent; immediately the tariff comes off. And then we go to our apple market, and for three years there will be a reducement of those tariffs to eventually be duty-free. And then hoki—fish—6 percent of export volume of $2.2 million litres. It’s when you start thinking about those products and where they come from, and yes, Pukekohe, with the onions—and we grow onions in Hawke’s Bay too, because of course we have such a diverse primary sector region. And mussels is another; butter; cheese—it goes on and on.

By driving those trade opportunities, it means that we can continue to have the focus in growing our markets, and that’s an exciting part of being part of the regions. Not often enough do we acknowledge the hard-working regions who do drive the export economies. I do do a massive shout-out to those people who work in the primary sector, and also to those—not just the farmers and the growers, but also all the thousands of people who go to work every day to ensure that our products are produced into many, many different added-value products. Whether that’s sheep meat, whether that’s dairy, whether that’s producing wine and how we do it, there are so many more jobs that are related and connected back to the export markets.

This is a historic day. This is a historic day in the third readings of this legislation to make sure that we can champion and celebrate everything we do well in trade negotiations. It has been the Labour Government who has been the Government that has been at the head of trade deals for this country. It’s so important to recognise the hard work of officials and negotiators, and making sure that the best deals are made for our country and for our trading partners. And as relationships with our trading partners continue to foster and develop, we continue to be right at the forefront of these negotiations. That is why I know that my first primary school, who was in this House today, know that they can be proud of the hard work of their forebears, their parents—and the job opportunities that they will go into will mean that New Zealand continues to thrive and champion the best export quality products to the world. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Simon Watts—five minutes.

I rise on behalf of the National Party and as a member of Parliament for North Shore to talk today on the third readings of the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill and the Apple Transitional Export Quota Bill. As we’ve heard from prior speakers already this morning in this House, this does represent a significant milestone for both our country and also the United Kingdom in terms of formalisation of a trade agreement, which no doubt is one of the most significant in terms of what New Zealand has been able to negotiate to date. I think it is important to recognise all of those individuals, both current and in the past, that have contributed significantly across multiple Governments to ensure that we are where we are today in terms of being able to pass these bills through on their third reading.

I have had the pleasure to spend nearly a decade living in the United Kingdom, working in financial services, and it is very clear when one lives outside of New Zealand, particularly in the UK, the very close relationship that our two countries share and continue to share and have shared for a long period of time across our history. I think those synergies that we have, as our two countries together, are very, very important and provide the bedrock and the foundations, I think, for what you’ve seen in regards to this legislation and this trade agreement, because both sides benefit here in terms of what is being done and passed.

When you reflect in terms of the benefits both for New Zealand, we’ve heard significant comment around the primary and hort sector. I grew up on an apple orchard, my father is a horticulturalist, and my grandfather was a horticulturalist. So the concept in regard to the impacts around apples and pears and all of that stuff is important, and I do acknowledge those apple orchardists right out there at the moment. The apple trees are all out in bloom and they’re starting to flower, and they’re a little bit hesitant around weather and impacts, but they are in that phase. And if you think about our dairy farmers at the moment, many of them would have just come in from the shed and are probably having a quick cup of tea and a little bit of breakfast before they head back out on the bike to do those chores on the farm, because they are in the midst of their full production process on our farms at the moment. These individuals and these families across our country in rural and provincial New Zealand provide a significant contribution in terms of the economic wellbeing of our country and are a key input and enabler in terms of an export sector that will benefit from this trade agreement.

I think it is also important to recognise that while we’ve got a significant element in terms of those sectors who do the production element, it is also critically important that we have the infrastructure enablement through our ports. If I think about the port of Tauranga, I think that is the preeminent export primary sector port in this country. Ensuring that those infrastructure assets and the enablement in the supply chain elements linked to those assets are operating as efficiently as possible will allow us both now and also into the future to maximise the benefits from such legislation.

I also want to reflect on the benefits for the UK as well, because as a result of this the tariffs in regard to clothing coming into New Zealand—buses, ships, excavators, and bulldozers I see have all been cut, and they also will allow UK lawyers and auditors to operate more in New Zealand in regard to providing cross-border advisory support. I think that slashing of red tape is critically important in terms of futureproofing New Zealand’s ability to increase our productivity and economic growth.

The other aspect I think is to reflect on where we go from here. As we know, this legislation sets a precedent in terms of that. The EU deal’s another conversation, but I think the focus really is around the complex, and continuation of, trade discussions with both the US and India. Those two countries and the need for us to have much more sustainable plans and free-trade agreements with both of those entities will be the focus, I think, in terms of what we see in the next terms within this Parliament. So that’s pretty much where I want to leave it. We will commend these bills to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak this morning on the third reading of these significant United Kingdom free-trade agreement bills. I would like to start off, as others have before me, by congratulating the Minister, the Hon Damien O’Connor, and his team for doing the mahi in concluding this significant agreement.

What we’re talking about this morning is, of course, an omnibus bill—it is amending several pieces of legislation because there are a limited number of legislative and regulatory amendments that are required to ensure that we align New Zealand’s domestic law with certain obligations that are in the free-trade agreement.

New Zealand signed this free-trade agreement with the United Kingdom in March 2022 and, as mentioned before by several speakers, it is a gold-standard agreement—it offers unprecedented access to the United Kingdom market. From entry into force, almost all tariffs will be eliminated on New Zealand’s exports in the United Kingdom. New Zealand exporters will save approximately $37 million per year on tariff elimination. It is also a free-trade agreement of firsts: this is our very first bilateral free-trade agreement to include a specific article on climate change.

I’d like to also commend my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. They examined the legislation between 26 July and 20 October, and they made a limited number of recommendations that are contained in the bills that are being brought back to this House.

Now, the UK, as has been mentioned, was New Zealand’s seventh largest trading partner pre-COVID-19, and our two countries have a very strong relationship that this bill will only strengthen.

I’d like to echo the comments of a previous speaker who said that this is a good day for free trade, and I commend these bills to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a great pleasure to stand and take a call on these bills. There are good reasons for that. We’ve heard a lot about the numbers and everyone being really, really excited about that. But this deal isn’t just about numbers; it is about people.

I just want to reflect. We’ve heard the member from Tukituki talking about apples, so you might expect me stand up and talk about cows, but actually, I’m not. I’m going to talk about the exciting things that are going to be opened up for our producers in Taranaki because of trade deals like this one.

We’ve got this really amazing little company, Greenfern Industries in South Taranaki. Dan Casey and his team are really exciting to go meet with. They’re the only Toitū carbonzero certified medicinal cannabis company in New Zealand. They do really amazing stuff with industrial hemp and hemp food. They are working really, really hard to have an amazing export and domestic industry. There are—quite rightly—huge, huge standards and things that they need to do in order to be great at what they do. This sort of deal helps them a little bit as they go out into the big wide world with their amazing products.

There’s also some really exciting work happening—so organisations like Venture Taranaki, who are really exploring what we do with our wonderful, wonderful land in Taranaki. The food and fibre sector contributes over $1.5 million to our GDP—just from little old Taranaki—and more than 10,000 jobs. It isn’t just from dairy. We have had significant investment and innovation that is going to be helped and supported by this free-trade agreement, because we have locked in really high expectations about sustainable and progressive land use that leads to great export products: hocks, avocados, gin botanicals—so, you know, we’re just complementing that wine that’s coming out of the Hawke’s Bay—construction, hemp fibre, sheep, dairy, trees, medicinal plants, kiwifruit; all things that you wouldn’t really expect to be coming out of Taranaki, but that innovation and that entrepreneurship and that ambition is supported by deals like this.

When I used to teach this subject at school, economics, and we talked about—we’ve heard about how relationships are enhanced by trade deals. GATT came out after World War II. In 1957, 65 percent of our exports went to the UK. That was down to just over 6 percent in 2000. So that relationship has changed a lot over the years, and this trade deal means that we are futureproofed and able to grow in a way that is sustainable and ambitious. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. All members of this Parliament have, effectively, come out in favour of these bills. We do need to have, as a trading nation, the ability to trade, and trading with the UK makes a lot of sense. The UK has left its European brothers and sisters with the exit in Brexit. A good stroke of ingenuity by the British to do that—to leave Europe—and a smart move for them, but it meant that they then had to look at free-trade agreements around the world.

It’s all right for the Government to say how great they are in this free-trade agreement, but, effectively, the British signed the Australian free-trade agreement three or four months before this, and it, effectively, set up this agreement. So I think rather than our New Zealand negotiating Ministers taking any credit, they should actually be crediting the Australian negotiating Ministers that actually achieved a lot more than the New Zealand Ministers did.

Now, there’s some Labour members over there laughing at that and saying, “No, our Ministers did a great job, and look how great they are and wonderful they are.” Well, I’d just like to read two paragraphs from Farmers Weekly in July this year: “Before flying to Brussels for the final few days of the talks last month Ardern told media that NZ was ready to accept an improvement on the ‘status quo’ market access NZ exporters already had in the EU. Around that time Cabinet had signed off on a change in the mandate given to NZ’s trade negotiators from a commercially meaningful deal for key pastoral exports to the lower threshold of an improvement on the status quo market access.”

Basically, the Prime Minister made a comment that led to the end of any meaningful negotiations in the EU. Minister O’Connor tried to put a brave face on it, saying what a great result that was for New Zealand in the EU negotiations. The reality is they achieved nothing of any consequence in that agreement.

This agreement is more consequential for New Zealand but comes off the back of what the Australians, effectively, negotiated. So it’s pretty rich for the Government over there to say that they’ve done anything meaningful in free trade. They haven’t. They actually stuffed up the European negotiations. When it comes to British ones, they’re riding on the back of a Britain that was trying to get back into the world and had already signed an agreement with our largest neighbour.

So we need to take the context into account, and when we look at that we understand just how poor this Government is in negotiating free-trade agreements. What else have we achieved under this Government that actually helps our exporters? Nothing. They have burnt our exporters at home. Their continual rules and regulations are destroying the New Zealand primary sector. They just have to look at the polling and see that their party is sliding down the polls, and that is a reflection of their poor performance in the trade area and in primary production in general.

We accept this agreement and we will be supporting it and we want more free trade, but where is the Government on free trade with other countries? Where are we going with Indonesia? Where are we going with India? Countries like Australia have signed a heads of agreement with India. We can’t even get in the door. Where’s our agreement with Indonesia? They’re not even working on it.

When are the Labour Party going to actually look at some of the big trading countries that are on our doorstep that we need to trade with in the future? The UK agreement is great, but our future lies in this region, and we need to have agreements with Indonesia and India, and we don’t see any progress from this Government. If anything, what we’re going to see is a Government that will stall and fail in those agreements, as they did in the EU agreement. They failed completely. They may laugh over there, but they did. That quote I read out indicates why there was complete failure, and that was because the Prime Minister gave up before they even went into the negotiations.

💬 Hon Kiritapu Allan: Rubbish.

Well, do you want me to read it out again for the Labour member? OK, I’ll read it out again, then, for the Labour member: “Ardern told media that NZ was ready to accept an improvement on the ‘status quo’ market access NZ exporters already had in the EU”. She didn’t want a better agreement; she just wanted the status quo. That’s not what we engage in free trade for—the status quo. We engage in free trade to get better agreements.

Now, if the members over there want to dispute that, well then maybe take it up with their leader. I’m sure it’s an open and honest caucus where they can have those discussions, and I’m sure members that have had those discussions in the past don’t just end up going to a by-election a couple of months later. The reality is the Labour Party—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! I’m going to ask and invite the member to come back to the matter at hand.

The free-trade agreement with the UK is what we are talking about, because we are looking at what Labour’s done in the free-trade area. They haven’t done much, if anything, and what they have done has probably hurt us in some regards, like they did in the EU agreement.

So when this House votes on this bill, this will be a vote that was always going to be on an agreement that was going to be successful for New Zealand, because the British had to do it. They left—Brexit. They had to get some agreements in place. They didn’t have negotiating teams. They were ready to go, but they just didn’t have the ability to do it, and New Zealand and Australia were the first cabs off the rank. Australia was actually the first cab off the rank, and our agreement was signed a few months later, basically as a replication of what the Australians had achieved. That’s, effectively, what happened here, so it’s not any success by this Government at all.

When we look at what this Government’s track record on trade is, they actually failed completely in the EU agreement. That’s their track record. When we look at their track record compared with Australia, where are our Indian and Indonesian agreements that Australia has? Those are the markets of the future. The British can make as much milk as we can make. They’ll make as many primary products as we will. They will be able to control their economy much more. Their populations aren’t nearly the size of India and Indonesia. Our future lies in the Asian region, and we don’t get free-trade agreements with those countries under this Government.

That’s the reality of what New Zealanders need to look at. Instead of hearing the rhetoric of how great we are and how lovely we are at doing this, look at the reality. They stuffed up the EU agreement, they only got this one because the Aussies had negotiated it, and they haven’t done any work on any other agreements. That’s the reality of what’s going on.

Kia ora e te Māngai o te Whare. It is my great pleasure to wrap this up. I do, though, want to acknowledge the hurt in Mr David Bennett. It is tough. It is tough, when you consider yourself the ruling class and those with the moral obligation to rule, to realise that the other side is just bringing it home so much better. So bring it on, Mr Bennett.

Bring on, for example, record exports in the primary sector of $53 billion. We’re doing badly? We’re doing incredibly well: 83 percent of our primary exports—$53 billion; an absolute record. Absolutely brilliant management, and I want to commend the Minister for this agreement, for the absolute joy and productivity that it is going to add to our already booming sector and our already booming economy. Productivity is up, even within ourselves, since COVID. So it must be a bit miserable to be around the Bennett table at Christmas, with “Mr Grinch” over there. But let’s get back to the real deal.

This is a remarkable piece of legislation, a remarkable agreement, which is going to revolutionise our trade with our traditional partners in the UK. This particular little piece of legislation we have is merely technical and enables us to implement that agreement.

I want to give a very quick shout-out on one particular aspect of it, which is the provision to increase the earnings of sound-recording artists. As the mother of a budding sound-recording artist who frequently sees very little joy in the future prospects of being able to be supported by one’s children, I am grateful personally to Mr Damien O’Connor and his team for bringing that one home.

But the fundamental point that we are here to say is that we are here to implement legislation which will implement a deal, which is going to, on day one, remove 99.5 percent of current New Zealand tariffs with the UK, and over the next seven to 15 years, it will eliminate the whole darned lot. It’s a remarkable thing for us. On, I think, the 130th anniversary of the first export of frozen meat from Dunedin, this is a darned good way to celebrate, and I commend it to the House.