Sowry Roger: Budget Debate 
Sowry Roger: Budget Debate 
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The other thing one has to remind the Minister of—and that was a good illustration—is the reason he is losing ministries. Everyone knows that during the leaky homes crisis this Minister did not just preside over the scandal; he himself was the scandal. That is extraordinary. 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: He tried to cover it up. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: That is right. What New Zealand is facing under this Government is a foreign policy train-wreck. Who is in charge of the foreign policy train wreck? It is the Prime Minister herself. She is the driver and she is driving this country down. We could hardly be in a worse position. Australia is going to get a free-trade agreement next year and New Zealand is not. Those were the simple facts given to us yesterday by the Americans themselves and no amount of sophistry from the Minister this afternoon can cover up those facts. 
It has been said that New Zealand could gain $1 billion in extra trade. The worst of this is that we will lose trade. Farmers up and down the country know full well that their sales of beef and dairy products will be reduced because American buyers will now have the opportunity to buy from Australia. Why on earth would one buy from New Zealand when one can buy the same product more cheaply from Australia? So when the Minister of Finance talks about a 2 percent growth rate next year and an increased unemployment rate he is telling the truth. Things are getting worse under Labour’s jurisdiction. That will happen even more because of the loss of that free-trade agreement. That is the price of Government incompetence. 
History tells us the real story. I shall go back to 6 months ago. In November New Zealanders were optimistic about a free-trade deal. We had been described as a very very very good friend. Straight after the first resolution on Iraq back in November New Zealand announced the deployment of a frigate an Orion and a Hercules in Operation Enduring Freedom. 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: Did they ever get there? 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: They did. Coincidentally just 2 days after that announcement Robert Zoellick wrote to Congress saying that the United States was going to start negotiations with Australia and he asked whether New Zealand should be included. He was asking Congress’s opinion as to whether it would like to include New Zealand because it had been seen that we were doing something OK. Real commitment— 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: On the doorstep. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: We were on the doorstep. That is what one gets from good relationships: security trade and prosperity. The Government seemed to understand that. It was making the moves. What has happened in the last 6 months? Frankly Helen Clark blinked. What did she do as we got closer to war? The first thing she did was to say that we would not support the second resolution. This is a Government that told the United States Britain and Australia to go to the UN. They went to the UN but when they asked for help from the UN what did our Government do? We did not just say “No” in New Zealand; we had to instruct our ambassador to the United Nations to go along and make the point that New Zealand could not possibly support Britain the United States and Australia in the UN. We had to oppose them. We were proud in the eyes of Helen Clark to align ourselves with France. 
Simon Power 
: Why didn’t she just keep quiet? 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: Why did she not just keep quiet? It is a pretty logical thing is it not? As a matter of good faith our friends and allies had gone to the UN and we turned our backs on them. When the war started the military expert known as Helen Clark decided it was bleedingly obvious that the war was going badly and that if only her good friend Al Gore had been President things would have been OK. 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: That was popular. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: That was really popular. She was asked to apologise. She apologised—3 days later. Did she apologise for what she said? 
Opposition Members 
: No. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: No. She did not apologise for what she said. She was asked in question after question for 2 consecutive days to apologise. 
Did she apologise? No. She apologised only for the offence taken. The Americans were saying it is not a very good situation and one would think at that point that a little bit of a lesson might have been learnt; after all Robert Zoellick had this to say on 19 March—and I want to quote this because it is important: “ ... there’s not many times that a country like the United States has to ask for help from others. And when we do it matters when friends stand by us so we thank you for that we appreciate it.” He said that to Australia in relation to a free-trade agreement. The lesson could hardly be clearer. 
What was our response? Well the Prime Minister went to Europe and decided to add a little bit extra just in case the point had not been fully received. This is what she said in Europe: “What everyone’s looking at is whether there is going to be a Franco/German/Russia link-up with good links through to the Chinese against what we have which looks like a small Anglo/American group—it shifts the whole dynamic.” She said that after the war had been won—and no one could even work out who had won the war at that point so that was really foot-in-the-mouth stuff. 
So what have been the consequences of that stunning diplomacy? Six months ago we were in line for a free-trade agreement. We were at least on the doorstep. We now know what 6 months of diplomacy has done. When asked whether New Zealand would be linked into an Australian-US free-trade agreement Robert Zoellick said: “That is not my present expectation.” Members should remember that this is a man who 6 months ago was asking to include New Zealand in the free-trade agreement and today he is saying “No”. We know that the cause of that is Helen Clark because when he was asked why that would be the case he said that America was disappointed by recent actions by New Zealand—and I guess he was not thinking of George Hawkins when he said that; he was probably thinking of the Prime Minister. On this side of the House we have been saying that as long as Helen Clark is Prime Minister of New Zealand there will be no free-trade agreement with the United States and today the Americans confirmed precisely that fact. 
David Benson-Pope 
: Vision. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: This is what I have to say to the senior Government whip when I hear him say the word “vision”: all New Zealanders will pay the price for the Prime Minister’s foolishness in lower living standards fewer jobs and shattered relationships. To quote Helen Clark herself she is no longer conscientiously working hard to look after our interests. She is driving a train-wreck. It is time to change her.