Bennett David: Tariff (Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Tariff (Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4416. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): I would like to acknowledge the good words that have been said by members of this House in regard to how the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee worked on this free-trade agreement. I especially acknowledge the good chair of the committee Mark Mitchell who did a great job as chair so I am acknowledging his ability to chair that committee so well. I also acknowledge the Labour members on the committee who have made their points well-known during this debate and also through the select committee stage but at the same time they have recognised the importance of free trade to New Zealand—especially Mr Goff over there who spoke earlier who was instrumental in the Chinese agreement. He understands that sometimes you just have to look and make the best agreement you can. You cannot always have everything that you would want which is contrary to what New Zealand First and Green Party members have said. I just want the members of the public who are listening to this debate to remember that.On this side of the House you have a National Government that is intent on building our trading base that is intent on giving New Zealanders the opportunity to prosper and succeed in the world and that is intent on giving our exporters the tools to go out there and show their wares on the world stage. It is an intent that is actually supported by the Labour Party—good on those members—but it is not an intent that is supported by the other forms of the Opposition New Zealand First and the Green Party. Whether to have those parties together with the Labour Party is the choice that New Zealanders have to make. It is not a choice between National and Labour; it is a choice between National and Labour the Greens and New Zealand First. Under that choice of Labour the Greens and New Zealand First New Zealand would not be a free-trading country. New Zealand would not be a free-trading country. There would—Darroch Ball: Oh rubbish!DAVID BENNETT: “Oh rubbish!”—OK well your members have voted against this bill—[Interruption] It would be interesting to see whether that member would actually have some rational reason between—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I think we have had a double offence so you would probably let both of them go. Dr Graham please do not interject when you are wandering around. Mr Bennett do not refer to Dr Graham as me. Thank you.DAVID BENNETT: Nobody would refer to Dr Graham as you Mr Assistant Speaker.The New Zealand First member asked what was good in this agreement for Northland. What is good in this for Northland? Well what is Northland but a productive part of our country? Northland produces the goods and services that are shown around the world. It produces the forestry products that we export. It produces the dairy products that we export. It produces the meat products that we export. It produces the food products that we export through all our great ports in New Zealand. The Northland economy has the most to benefit from this free-trade agreement.Dr Shane Reti: Auckland’s garden.DAVID BENNETT: It is Auckland’s garden but it is also the Garden of Eden for South Korea now and that is the fact. Without the free-trade agreement Northland does not prosper.It is very very sad that the new member for Northland could not actually be in this House and deliver a speech in regard to that. It is very sad that his associates—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member knows that he does not refer to the absence of a member. He will withdraw.DAVID BENNETT: I withdraw but the New Zealand First Party is not supporting this bill and it said—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): The member will resume his seat. The member knows that he must unconditionally withdraw. The member cannot say: “I withdraw but”.Hon Member: That’s an interesting turn of phrase.DAVID BENNETT: Yes. I withdraw.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Thank you.DAVID BENNETT: The New Zealand First Party does not agree with this bill and it does not see any advantage in this for Northland. Well there is advantage for Northland. If you are an exporter coming from Northland you want those tariffs to be removed. Those tariffs that are there are holding back the export potential of that region and therefore the growth of that region. That is what this bill is about. It is providing growth and opportunity for the regions of New Zealand—those exporting bases that are important for the growth of our country going forward. I commend all parties of this House that have supported this bill for the ability in the way that they have done that.All free-trade agreements involve some negotiation. There is no set-piece free-trade agreement that will happen overnight. The New Zealand First members have said that this is a thing that will take a period of time to come to fruition. Well that is the case. That is the normal nature of free-trade agreements. The question for New Zealand is whether we stay out of free-trade agreements hoping that we get it all in one hit—which would never occur—or whether we actually go into those free-trade agreements and build that base for our economy going forward. New Zealand needs to enter these agreements.For example when we look at the South Korean agreement the Australian Government had already entered into that some years ago. New Zealand was behind the eight ball. Our competitive advantage was being eroded by our inability to actually compete in that market through not having a free-trade agreement. This free-trade agreement gives us that ability. It is somewhat a number of years later than the Australian one but it still gets us into that zone and gives us that ability to deliver for our exporters.If we took the Opposition point of view New Zealand would not enter these agreements. New Zealand would put up a fortress mentality and believe that it could put in a number of trade barriers tariffs and suchlike to stop New Zealanders being realistic in their ability to trade.Darroch Ball: Rubbish.DAVID BENNETT: The member over there says “Rubbish.” but that is the party policy of his party. His party is against free trade. It has always been against free trade. It always will be against free trade. That is the case of his party.Darroch Ball: That’s rubbish.DAVID BENNETT: If it is not rubbish vote for the bill. Vote for the free-trade agreement. Vote for this agreement that is in front of you today. Why do you not vote for it? Because those members are against free trade—that is why.New Zealanders know that they need free trade. Look at some of the aspects of this bill. Look at some of those products that are going to be advantaged by this bill. Look at kiwifruit. Kiwifruit has a 45 percent tariff. That is a large tariff and that will be phased out over 5 years. That is good for the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. That puts us on a level playing field with Chile—one of our biggest competitors in that industry in that region in that market—because it already has a free-trade agreement.If you look at meat products New Zealand exports about $186 million worth of meat products to Korea each year and we pay about $70 million in duties. That is a 40 percent tariff which will be phased out within 15 years. A 40 percent tariff phased out in 15 years—that is good for the people of Northland and that is good for the exporters of New Zealand. In forestry $503 million worth of forestry products is going into Korea. Over 99 percent of those exports will be duty-free within 10 years. That is good news for the people of Northland. That is good news for the people of New Zealand.Fletcher Tabuteau: Talk about ISDS.DAVID BENNETT: I challenge that party over there which is anti - free trade and now has the ability to represent the people of Northland to stand up for the people of Northland. Give them something. Do not take things away from them. Give something to the people of Northland. Give them the opportunity to go out there and to deliver their economic future. Do not take it away because of some pure ideology that their leader may have which those members will follow like clones over in that party.Then the Green Party will never agree to free trade. The Green Party will find every excuse in the book to avoid having free trade. It does not matter whether it is the best free-trade agreement that could ever be written. Even if Kennedy Graham had written the agreement he would not vote for it because those members would not. The Green Party cannot philosophically agree with free trade. So that bloc of the New Zealand Opposition is against free trade and that is the thing that New Zealanders need to take out of this debate.The Labour members know it is good. They know they are going to vote for it. They know it is the right thing to do. The New Zealand First Party is against it. The Green Party is against it. The National Government is for it and has delivered this for New Zealanders.This is a good bill. It is good for the people of Northland and it is a shame that the representatives from Northland will not vote for it but that is something that is those members’ prerogative and shows that they do not actually care for the people of Northland. And who did not expect that to happen in this House because in the end they do not care. They want to go back to the 1950s to some little space that they can control and that is not good for New Zealanders. We need free trade and this delivers it. Thank you.