Hutchison Paul: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — First Reading 
Hutchison Paul: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:653;Page:2642] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this landmark and historic ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill. I too want to acknowledge some of those responsible for the bill’s genesis and in particular the trade Minister the Hon Tim Groser who has worked hard and long in this area for New Zealand. It is great to have him as the National Government trade Minister. Also like various others I acknowledge the fact that this bill has had a long genesis over a great deal of time. It has been mentioned by Pete Hodgson that the Hon Lockwood Smith back in the days of the New Zealand - Singapore free-trade agreement had a lot to do with the beginnings of this bill and in the 1990s of course it was the Rt Hon Sir William Birch followed by the Hon Jim Sutton and more recently by the Leader of the Opposition Phil Goff. 
There is no doubt that this is an extremely important bill. It does give huge opportunities for New Zealand exports including of course our vital primary exports. But it does not mean only export opportunities and I think it is important to point that out to Dr Kennedy Graham. It also means closer ties culturally and politically in a very wide region that is becoming increasingly important to New Zealand. I noted that the Hon Phil Goff mentioned the importance of a bipartisan approach to such vital foreign affairs and trade legislation as this and of course we absolutely agree with that sentiment. 
It is worthwhile to think back a little to the importance and the origin of ASEAN the Association of South-east Asian Nations which was founded in 1967 and is central to New Zealand’s relations with Asia itself. There is no doubt that this area is a major regional political and economic grouping with a population of over 500 million people. New Zealand became a dialogue partner in the technical term of ASEAN in 1974 and joined the ASEAN regional forum in 1994 and in 2005 it acceded to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. Again I think this is one area where it is appropriate to point out to Dr Kennedy Graham that all these issues are not about an unbridled obsession with economic growth. They are far wider and deeper than that. I think the Greens should put that in perspective. In 1995 ASEAN and the Closer Economic Relations trade and economic Ministers agreed to establish a dialogue to facilitate trade and investment linkages between the two regions and in 1996 ASEAN and the Closer Economic Relations Ministers signed a memorandum of understanding to promote cooperation on standards and conformance. 
Participation in ASEAN provides an opportunity for New Zealand to contribute to evolving regional views on security and on political and economic developments. As we think about the Pacific in these days in these troubled times with Fiji and where there were difficulties with Timor-Leste Tonga and of course Bougainville we realise it is very important to be able to have solid relationships in this wider area so that the dialogue that we have is one of constructiveness and reasonable familiarity so that hopefully these issues can be solved in a useful way. Participation also provides an opportunity for New Zealand to underline its credentials as a committed and responsible member of the Asia-Pacific community and again this is a rebuttal to the Green member Dr Kennedy Graham’s suggestion that there is an obsession with economic growth. Economic growth is absolutely important; it has huge benefits. How else would we manage to achieve a good health service a good social welfare service and all the facilities that New Zealanders believe are very important to them if we do not get sustained economic growth? But the point is that ASEAN membership certainly reinforces our bilateral relationships with ASEAN and individual member countries and it also provides the ability to exchange views with other dialogue partners that are major influences in the Asian region and beyond right throughout the world. 
This trade agreement is significant as it represents closer relationships with key countries in South-east Asia. It is important that we establish trade partners that have huge potential for an increase in trade and other members have pointed out just how large the potential is. It is also important that New Zealand can assist developing countries through closer economic relationships. The Hon Steve Chadwick and I were part of a team of New Zealand parliamentarians who went to a climate change and population conference in Viet Nam recently. Again this was very useful in terms of our debate on the revision of the emissions trading system and it was very useful for the links that we made with Viet Nam. It is important to realise that Viet Nam itself is a country where we have had extraordinary growth in trade in recent times. For example Viet Nam is a rapidly growing export market. In 2007 exports were $362 million roughly double those in 2005. If we can keep on doubling those exports we will certainly be doing extremely well. 
There is no doubt that the other effect that this bill creates is more certainty in trade relations with other countries which makes doing business more profitable—and there is everything right with that; there is nothing wrong with it whatsoever. As I have tried to point out the remarks of the Greens about an obsession with economic growth are clearly not true. This bill is involved with a whole spectrum of activities that are very important to New Zealand: cultural diplomatic and political activities. It is also important to remember that the economic downturn that we are currently suffering will increase protectionist actions in other nations and this agreement will counter that by opening opportunities in other potentially lucrative markets. It opens the doors to investment and the provision of services in areas where New Zealand is currently unable to meet demand and the agreement with the Philippines on trade labour and the environment provides certainty that the human rights and environmental standards that we value are maintained by our close trading partner. 
There is no doubt that this bill is a significant step towards closer relations and it opens the door for further development in the future. This means that New Zealand is in the centre of these developments. The free-trade agreement has strong support from the New Zealand business community and also from many of the newer immigrants from this very wide region who have come into our country over the last few decades.