McAnulty Kieran; Twyford PhilHon KIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I acknowledge the contributions from the two previous speakers. They've acknowledged the role of the officials and of the Minister for Trade for bringing this and encouraging it to go through so quickly and rightly so acknowledging the working of the select committees but I think it's important to acknowledge the role that previous Ministers played in particular that of the Hon Damien O'Connor. In my view he is the hardest-working and most effective trade Minister that we've had actually and it has to be acknowledged.I remember going on a delegation—an official delegation—alongside the Rt Hon David Carter the Hon Paul Goldsmith and the Hon Anne Tolley to commemorate Passchendaele. While we were there we were asked to ensure that we met with key delegates from the European Union to push for this free-trade agreement and whilst there was a lot of enthusiasm at an individual level we didn't leave with too much enthusiasm that anything would be done all that quickly. That was in 2020. Well we know that in that period of time there was COVID there were massive disruptions and so for the Hon Damien O'Connor to be able to work alongside officials and steer that home in the way that he did and get it signed also in the backdrop of signing the UK free-trade agreement which commenced and concluded in a single term of Government—I don't think that's happened before. It's important that at moments like this with key pieces of legislation that will bring benefits to New Zealand exporters over generations to come that those that play a part in that are given true recognition.Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): Thank you Madam Speaker. I can see the Minister was about to get on his feet so I'll try not to stand between the committee and the Minister's contribution for too long but I just wanted to add to the questions that I hope that the Minister might address. Would be interested to hear from him his thoughts about some aspects of this trade agreement which are unusual and ground-breaking. Colleagues have commented on the geographical indicators issue the questions of market access but one of the distinctive features of this trade agreement which—the delegation of European parliamentarians who visited New Zealand before the EU entered the ratification phase were very keen to emphasise the importance of some of the provisions in here which they felt bound New Zealand and the EU in terms of shared values. It was their commitment to labour standards; the provisions in the agreement which provide that the parties can hold each other accountable to the commitments that we have made under the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women the international instrument on gender equality; and our commitments both the EU and New Zealand to the Paris climate change commitments.Hon Shane Jones: Oh minor detail—minor detail.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I'm not surprised that that member would say this was a minor detail given his stated intention in some of his portfolios. He might find his activities dragged up before a tribunal to determine whether or not they're in breach of our country's commitments under this agreement. That would be very interesting to see.But I'd invite the Minister to comment about his thoughts on those provisions which do make this quite a distinctive agreement. I'd be interested to hear what advice he's got on how those provisions are operationalised. What are we going to do? We all know that even in the best of agreements you can achieve a good result on paper but it's what happens after the ink dries in terms of exporters being able to take advantage of market access and reduction of tariff barriers and so on.But what about these other provisions: labour standards climate change commitments gender equality? I would note in relation to labour standards that the Council of Trade Unions New Zealand's peak body for the labour movement is raising questions at the International Labour Organization in Geneva about whether or not this Government's recent moves in the area of employment relations risks putting New Zealand in breach of the commitments we made to the EU under this agreement. So I'd be keen to hear the Minister's view on that.