O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Acting Minister for Trade and Export Growth): Thank you Madam Chair. I'll just take the opportunity to answer a few queries that have been made by members of the Opposition and by the Green Party. Can I just in starting acknowledge the members of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee who have scrutinised this piece of legislation. Most of the points they have raised in the committee here tonight are legitimate and reasonable points and I'll try and work through a couple of them.In response to Mr Simon O'Connor's question around how many pages I'm told there are about 30 chapters and we're still counting the number of pages. This is a substantive agreement. Moving on to Mr Hudson's point about no substantial changes I have to say that the changes while they seem to be technical—and they are effectively to I think seven pieces of legislation and then of course to the Wine Regulations—are all significant from New Zealand's perspective. That is to ensure we have protected the rights of our performers in terms of copyright the sovereign rights of Government to ensure we can have a say over who buys our land and that we can have a say over other key pieces like who can trade pharmaceuticals with us. Those are things that this Government prior to coming into Government determined were important which is why we went to renegotiate and why we're now dealing with this.In terms of the points raised by the Green Party regarding investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) as I've said before I respect their view on that. Can I just clarify because no negotiated agreement is ever perfect for both parties. We accept that. We were opposed to ISDS clauses but of course we go into negotiation to get the best outcome overall—not perfect but the best overall outcome ensuring that New Zealand's sovereign rights have not been traded away. Can I say we have also agreed to reciprocal limits on those able to use the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership's (CPTPP) ISDS provisions.New treaty-status side letters were signed with Brunei Malaysia Peru and Vietnam to either exclude CPTPP ISDS between us or require prior consent by the Governments concerned—that is we'd both have to agree before any such action could be carried out. We also reconfirmed a side letter with Australia which excludes ISDS between the two countries—again the country we do most of our trade with so really important. These side letters are significant and effectively exclude up to 80 percent of the current investment flows from the CPTPP group into New Zealand from using ISDS.We are opposed to it and we will be in future trade agreements. I believe that Minister Parker and Prime Minister Ardern got the very best deal while protecting our rights through this agreement. So it is not perfect but it's certainly one—and I can assure the Green Party that we will adhere to the provisions in the side letters and the protections that we have and we will continue to oppose as a starting point ISDS provisions. But any negotiation is by virtue of its nature a compromise over certain particular issues keeping in mind that overall we believe this is a very significant step for a nation that relies on trading for our existence.Unlike most of the other countries involved where they consume most of what they produce we export most of what we produce hence the significance of this agreement and I guess the sensitivity around the provisions that we are changing here tonight.