Hayes John: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hayes John: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2114] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 I rise in support of the bill despite the fact that it has cost a huge amount of money to negotiate and is really going to deliver very little benefit other than possibly strategic benefit to our community. I have calculated from the national interest statement that there will be less than a 40c return per capita each year from this huge effort. Furthermore unlike the West Coast where the coal industry will benefit my people in the Wairarapa who produce wine and timber products will be exposed to greater competition. 
Nevertheless I am particularly interested in the title of the bill: the Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill. The interesting thing is that it does not include any Pacific Island nations. We need to deepen cooperation and integration with our Pacific Island countries and to establish where they and we might gain most through pooling Government resources aligning our policies and allowing our Pacific Island countries to come into our trading arrangements. 
 This sort of endeavour may take us well beyond current levels of regional cooperation and into a new phase of regional integration—a Pacific union perhaps at this time of unknown dimension. We need to transform our Pacific into a dynamic and progressive region capable of meeting the challenges of modernity and we need to do this by creating wealth through free trade. We may not have a common trade and economic base in the way that Europe has nor do we have the same historic context. We are not as compact as the Caribbean either. But as Pacific Island communities we do share certain values which have an important bearing on the way our societies operate and the way we interact with one another when we do interact. We share the world’s biggest ocean—which covers a third of the Earth’s surface—under international law and through our exclusive economic zones. The forum region has stewardship of the living and non-living resources of the Pacific Ocean. 
I think we have a similar outlook across our Pacific Island nations we have strong cultural values that we share and we have strong cultural links to the ocean and the land. I think that there is huge scope for expanding this agreement to include our island people. In the past we have never allowed existing conditions and restrictions to stop us from dreaming or seeking out new horizons. Otherwise we would never have populated the place. 
In terms of a real trans-Pacific agreement I think we could look at the European Union which started on a limited scale through small cooperation before moving to deeper integration. I think that Australia and New Zealand also began the process of closer economic relations by developing free trade in goods. Then we moved to free trade in services and then to a more thorough process of harmonisation and joint activity. It was the second series of steps that gave the trans-Tasman relationship its extra dimensions. I know there are a range of views about just how close and how integrated the relationship should be but the point is that few predicted 30 years ago where we would be today. I think we need to think about this and that the time has come to take the first step and to give serious consideration to broadening this agreement to include our Pacific Island neighbours. I am particularly pleased to note that the amendment proposed to section 7 of the principal Act will allow us to do this with relative ease. National supports this bill.