O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. Indeed it is a pleasure to rise in the House and support this legislation and I want to acknowledge the incoming Government for the speed with which it has dealt with this. It is indeed an advantage to all exporters—and importers of the European products as well—to get this legislation through. I have to acknowledge the speed with which the EU and its Parliament passed it through so I want to thank them. I will go through and thank a few people. I have to acknowledge my predecessor David Parker who had a very good relationship with Cecilia Malmström and he kind of checked the process—a process that many trade negotiators thought would actually be impossible. There were many who thought that actually a trade deal with the EU's 27 member States would have been virtually impossible to conclude. But I have to say it started—as Minister McClay has said—with discussions in 2015 under the previous National Government. It really began to be negotiated in 2018 and indeed it concluded—and I too along with the Minister want to thank the officials. This was through a COVID period. There were some officials who had to do quarantine two or three times in travelling backwards and forwards to Europe to Brussels some of whom caught COVID and it wasn't an easy process at all through a difficult time. But again I'm thanking the officials for all their work. I want to thank and acknowledge Valdis Dombrovskis who was the EU trade commissioner who followed Cecilia Malmström. He really did commit to this. Every commitment he made to meet and progress this he honoured and indeed I was there when his country Latvia—it is on the border of the Ukraine of course and Russia and it was deeply affected by that conflict. But he was able to maintain a focus on the EU of course and all its responsibilities but particularly in regard to our trade agreement. So I want to thank him for that. Again the trade agreement was signed on 9 July 2023. Both my Prime Minister colleagues were committed to this and did their bit where necessary to keep things moving along. This is a significant trade deal and it arguably sets a new standard for trade agreements across the globe. At a time when we're talking about emissions reduction when we're talking about biodiversity protection and when we're talking about animal welfare standards and labour standards the EU was like-minded with our country and that was that we did not want to seek an advantage in our trade relationships by in any way diminishing the standards that we both adhere to now and that we must maintain in the future—and indeed the agreement includes some of those provisions. Some people have pointed to them as being unnecessary but I think they are progressive they are inclusive and they offer as I say a new model for trade agreements across the globe one that I'm sure will be picked up by many. There are 450 million people who are high-value consumers in the EU and we have 5 million here. So there's a slight imbalance but what they saw with us was a partner with similar values. That's the thing. The references I've made as I say to climate change emissions reduction better labour standards—all of those things they saw in us as sharing the values and aspirations and indeed this locks us in. We're seeing with other countries that are trying to negotiate with the EU that they've hit some hurdles. I know that Australia has decided to park that for some time and I hope they can get that under way. But the EU has set a standard; and indeed for anyone who negotiates with the EU they'll have to meet that. Look the Minister has gone through a number of the technical points of this piece of legislation in adjusting our legislation to meet the requirements of the Act. There are some critical things that we took into this negotiation that we've protected. One was Pharmac. Pharmac is a unique model. The National Government brought that model in—and I want to thank you for that—some time ago. It's been under pressure by the pharmaceutical industry for a couple of decades now and so we've protected the right against what was an EU demand at the start to continue to negotiate affordable pharmaceuticals for our country. We put up the reality that Māori play a bigger part in our economy and said that we want to ensure that they had opportunities under a trade-for-all policy. So we included that chapter which again is leading the way for international trade agreements and we will see more countries include that as we move forward. The inclusion of animal welfare provisions to ensure that we would have discussions while we run different farming systems in different hemispheres and different situations—we were both committed to protect or to investigate the protection of those standards. Again that is something that has come under some scrutiny and some criticism. The volumes for both beef and dairy—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I just want to make you aware that these are five-minute calls in the first reading. I apologise as I was 20 seconds late ringing the one-minute signal. Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Sorry I thought I had—DEPUTY SPEAKER: But I'll let you finish your last sentence. Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: Look thank you very much. There is a lot to say. Again in conclusion I want to thank the Government for bringing this legislation into the House quickly. There are many other points that I'll raise through the committee stage. Again this is a valuable agreement for New Zealand it's valuable for the EU and I want to support this legislation. Kia ora.