Harawira Hone: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Harawira Hone: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 15 May 2008. Volume:647;Page:16028. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. Tena koe taku teina. A few weeks back I got an email that said: “It is very gratifying to hear that the Maori Party will not be supporting the free-trade agreement with China. It is good to know that the Maori Party is actually putting New Zealand first.” That was from a Pakeha lady. And another one has just come in about half an hour ago. It goes like this: “Tena koutou e nga rangatira”;  
Greetings to you o chiefly ones 
. “He mihi nunui ki a koutou mo o koutou tautoko i te kaupapa o Tibet.”  
Very special greetings to you for your ongoing support for the issue of Tibet 
. “Ehara to mahi i te mahi ngawari heoi ano ka taea te kite na koutou i hangai ki te kaupapa kia tautoko ai nga tangata o te whenua.”  
We know that your job is not an easy one but we can see that you stand fast in support of indigenous people 
. “Pera i te korero nei”  
Just like that old saying: 
 “ ‘he aha te mea nui o te ao?’ ”  
What is the most important thing of the world? 
 “He tangata he tangata he tangata…”  
It is people it is people it is Maori Party people 
! Tena koe.  
And that has been the tenor of many of the comments that we have received from around the country on our stand against the free-trade agreement and from relations of Tau Henare Shane Jones and Parekura Horomia on numerous occasions. It seems that after 20 years of privatisation and promises about the so-called benefits of multinational trade agreements New Zealanders are finally waking up to the fact that although business might prosper ordinary Kiwis are being squeezed out as businesses up and move offshore to take advantage of lower wages and lower work standards—ordinary Kiwis who worry about the long-term security of employment here in Aotearoa rather than profits in Beijing ordinary Kiwis who care about the future of manufacturing and processing here in Aotearoa ordinary Kiwis who are concerned about the lowering of standards of sanitation biosecurity and the environment and ordinary Kiwis who just want a future where their children live in an Aotearoa that they actually still own.  
After talking to a few Maori unionists around the country I believe that it seems there has been a bit of a rebellion within the working class against their union masters for blindly supporting Labour’s free-trade agreement with China when there are clearly no benefits for New Zealand workers in the deal. In fact when I was talking to Angeline Greensill the Maori Party MP for Hauraki-Waikato chosen last week she reminded me that every Maori in this House would most likely be able to record the costs and the casualties when forestry jobs were slashed when rural post offices were shut down when the railways were sold and stripped and when the country’s Crown jewels were flogged off in the early days of corporatisation and privatisation. That turned vibrant communities into ghost towns devastated generations of hard-working men whose economic futures were wiped out in a flash forced families to split up for work and launched the exit to Australia that has turned into a veritable flood of talent away from our shores.  
Heck even Mike Moore a former Labour Prime Minister and the recently retired director-general of the World Trade Organization thought so poorly of the way in which the country was being run that he described the Government as being in “a state of disrepair its dysfunctional and the problems systemic.” He also added without a drop of sarcasm: “I cannot think of another country in the world which would have a Foreign Minister who opposes what his Prime Minister says is a big deal the NZ/China Free Trade Agreement. Another Minister says he supports the deal but will boycott a reception.” That is hardly a vote of support from the Government’s primary coalition partners.  
Let me repeat what we have said on numerous occasions: we recognise and acknowledge the fact that for some Maori business groups—mainly those in the primary sector—there will be substantial benefits arising from this free-trade agreement and we encourage them to make the most of the opportunity to grow their asset base. We know of Ngai Tahu’s successful entry into the Asian markets of growing Maori farming and fisheries exports to China and of Maori investigation of Chinese aquacultural practice to assist their own development here. That is great—good luck to them—and we wish those Maori well in their efforts to generate positive dividends for their shareholders.  
But what about the other Maori the great majority of whom are neither business owners nor shareholders? What about them? What about those Maori who work in the manufacturing and processing industries that are already under the gun from Asian competition? What about those Maori who work in the fishing industry and who are already under pressure from Asian workers being paid low wages by Maori fisheries interests? And what about those Maori communities who do not benefit from the trickle-down theories of economic growth for the simple reason that big business ensures that profits stop trickling down when they reach its own pockets and that the only trickle left for those at the bottom is the pollution and trash from industries built under such agreements?  
There is clearly more to this agreement than simple economics and that is why the Maori Party reserves the right to make its decisions based on principle rather than simply profit and on whether we should be focusing more attention on fair trade rather than just free trade. Indeed the notion of a broader Treaty partnership with trading partners is of huge interest to us in the Maori Party and we note that there is no recognition of primary Maori principles contained within the free-trade agreement. There is no explicit evidence or requirement at all for consultation with tangata whenua as the Treaty partners. There is no analysis of the impact of the free-trade agreement on the Treaty of Waitangi itself. In fact the only mention of the Treaty of Waitangi suggests that the New Zealand Government will protect it. That is a great idea until we realise that the same Government stole our foreshore and seabed voted to take the Treaty out of legislation announced that it was taking the Treaty out of the curriculum tried to sell Maori land still under claim and refused to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is hardly the crowd one would vote for to protect one’s Treaty interests.  
Then of course there are other questions we should be asking ourselves such as how do we reconcile our signing up with a trading partner with a poor record in human rights and a reputation for unsatisfactory labour conditions and low wages and that is the current holder of the title of the world’s greatest polluter? Or do we simply turn our heads and look the other way? Then there is Tibet. If China’s repression of Tibet is any indication of its respect for the rights of indigenous people then Maori have every right to be wary of giving it any special privileges here. Derek Fox the Maori Party member of Parliament for Ikaroa-Rawhiti also reminded me that the people of Tibet are a first-nation people who continue to suffer every day under the tyranny of a colonial superpower and who have continued to suffer the same loss of land language and erosion of culture that Maori people knew of only too well. Mind you I also liked Judy Turner’s tongue-in-cheek line when she said: “maybe if the People’s Liberation Army can crush the dissension quickly enough we might be able to sneak over to Beijing sign on the dotted line and still gain the plaudits for being the first country to sign a bilateral free-trade agreement with China”. Is it worth it? That is the question.  
Another really worrying issue in this free-trade agreement for New Zealanders is the consequences for our biosecurity because under this free-trade agreement the import checks applied to animal and plant products are to be carried out in a manner that is “least trade-restrictive and without undue delay”. That is a horrifying thought given the importance of our agricultural sector to the New Zealand economy.  
Finally there is the gnawing suggestion that this free-trade agreement will not only allow but also even encourage massive growth within the dairy sector—a sector that we already know is having huge adverse effects on water quality carbon emissions and our own commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.  
Although we are told that there are benefits for Maori from the free-trade agreement the downside in terms of compromises to our national sovereignty threats to the status of the Treaty of Waitangi the impact of low work standards and wage rates and China’s lack of respect for human rights indigenous rights and the environment means that this free-trade agreement with China is simply unacceptable at this time and the Maori Party will be opposing this bill accordingly. Tena koe.