Robertson GrantGRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): I can see the National Government's problem today which is that—Hon Member: Really?GRANT ROBERTSON: Yes for today the problem is this: there is no plan B. That is the problem. So plan A was sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPPA); plan B refer to plan A. That was as good as it got for the National Party when it came to something approximating an economic plan or an economic strategy. So what I have been hoping that I would hear from National Party members today when they got up and spoke on this bill was to say: Plan A has failed."—and their leader John Key went on the radio this morning and said "It's over. It's dead." So I was hoping what we would hear today is the National Party members get up and say: "Well the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not going to happen so here's what we are going to do to support those small businesses and those exporters that Mr Mitchell just talked about."But instead the National Party continues to live in a state of denial. So once and for all for the National Party's benefit it is over it is finished move on find something new. That is the truth. It is not a matter of political cynicism Mr Mitchell it is the reality. What New Zealanders need is a Government that actually gets alongside them and does not put its faith in one single thing—does not put its eggs or its cows or whatever it is into one basket—because that is what unfortunately the National Government has done when it comes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.In earlier stages of this bill we raised time and again with the Government members the futility of what they were doing—the fact that we even have a bill that has got a commencement date for something that will now never happen. So this legislation will pass and then it will sit there in suspended animation for ever. That is some kind of legacy of the National Party's trade policy of the last couple of years.I said in earlier readings that I do want to give Mr McClay this piece of credit: once he became the trade Minister he worked out that he actually needed to go and engage with New Zealanders about trade. If that is one thing that I would have liked to hear a bit more about from the National Party members today it is that they will now take the opportunity of the collapse of the TPPA to get back to the basics of what New Zealanders are looking for when it comes to trade policy. I think what New Zealanders are looking for when it comes to trade policy is a Government that is out there looking for opportunities for our businesses and our exporters to sell their goods and services to the world. That is what we have done historically as New Zealanders from the very beginning—from the very first peoples who came here who were trading people all the way through to the Governments of the last century or so particularly the fifth Labour Government that made such great strides with things like the China free-trade deal. That is what we have been—a trading nation.But we do it on the basis of principles. We do it on the basis of fairness. We do it on the basis that this Parliament has a sovereign right to decide how we make regulations in this country how we decide who it is who gets the privilege of being able to buy a house in this country. It is this Parliament's job to do that. Let us set those principles. Let us make sure we sign trade agreements that are good for the environment that have good labour standards and that protect the Treaty of Waitangi. Let us go right back to the beginning and go back to New Zealanders and engage in getting a social contract and a social mandate around trade.That is what we now need to do because trade matters. Trade agreements matter—but not where we get sucked into an agreement like the TPPA which ended up being one that actually perpetuates all of the things that are wrong with the economic model in the world today. We actually need an economic model that values building wealth from the ground up that actually says that all those small businesses—and bear in mind that only about one-third of small businesses in the Mind Your Own Business survey actually supported the TPPA because they could see the risks. So let us get alongside those small businesses and build an economic model that is about decent work and decent jobs. It is about jobs that are going to be sustainable into the future that are not reliant upon these kinds of agreements that go so much further than what an ordinary trade agreement is.This was not just a trade agreement and New Zealanders saw through the Government's rhetoric in that regard. What New Zealanders saw was an agreement where they felt like they did not matter that the interests of corporations in other countries were somehow more important than the interests of the citizens inside New Zealand. That is what New Zealanders felt when they saw the TPPA. That is why they rejected it in such big numbers but the Government did not want to listen.Obviously we have seen across the world in terms of the results of the US election what happens when the feelings of anxiety and dispossession in the economy get exploited. I have no interest in that; what I want us to do as a House is recognise the people who have not benefited from globalisation recognise the people who feel that there is not a future for them in these kinds of agreements and work with those people to say: "There's a better way. We can build up trading relationships. We can build up agreements that do not exploit people that don't take away rights from Parliament but actually empower countries to trade with one another."I read during the US election a passage from somebody who was talking about what was wrong with the approach that Mr Trump was taking to these issues. That person said that there was an exploitation or an imposition of the belief that if I put out my neighbour's candle somehow mine will burn brighter. That is the exploitation here. The feeling of anxiety and dispossession is not solved by saying to somebody else "I don't want you to succeed."; it is solved by us working together to say: "There is a different economic model. There is a different way of doing this."Hon Judith Collins: Oh yeah he'll defend us.GRANT ROBERTSON: And there is Judith Collins—there is Judith Collins a person who consistently in this House comes in here to tell us all the things that we on this side of the House are doing wrong. Well I challenge Judith Collins to get up on her hind legs and tell this House what the new plan is—no nothing! There is no plan on that side of the House. There is no plan on that side of the House for what we do next—Hon Judith Collins: Oh you stupid man.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume his seat. The Hon Judith Collins has been a member of this House for some time and she knows that she must not address the Speaker in that manner.Hon Judith Collins: I apologise but I would say to that member that he should not talk about me as though I am a dog on hind legs—he should apologise.Hon David Parker: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): No I have not finished dealing with the member yet. The member will now withdraw without any reservation the comment that she made.Hon Judith Collins: I withdraw.GRANT ROBERTSON: Judith Collins and the National Government need to finally front up to New Zealanders and say what the economic plan is that is actually going to lift the incomes and the spirits and opportunities of all New Zealanders—not just the very few at the top not just those that the National Government cares about but all New Zealanders.That is what a good quality agreement would do. A good quality trade agreement would not be about scaring New Zealanders it would not be about telling New Zealanders that their dream of owning a home is expendable to the National Government it would not be about telling New Zealanders that the Government does not even know what the costs of medicines might be in the future and it would not be about extending out copyright provisions that will actually prevent innovation inside New Zealand. Those are not the things that would be in a trade agreement being brought to this House that was about lifting the incomes of ordinary working New Zealanders.The Government has completely failed over the last 2 years to actually bring New Zealanders with them on this agreement. A lot of the fault for that falls at the feet of the previous trade Minister Tim Groser who decided that he knew everything. His approach was symptomatic of an out-of-touch and arrogant Government that did not believe that it needed to listen to New Zealanders' concerns and did not believe it needed to listen to small businesses' concerns. Now Minister Todd McClay has an opportunity. He has an opportunity to reset the clock on trade to reset the bipartisan approach to trade which we would welcome if it is based on those core principles and values of New Zealanders: that we will have agreements that allow us to trade fairly that protect the environment that support labour rights that support the Treaty of Waitangi and are based on a new economy where everybody gets a fair go. If the Government brings those kinds of agreements to this House that protect our sovereignty that make sure that as New Zealanders we can make the laws that we want then we can have a bipartisan agreement on trade. That is the opportunity that the Government currently has and I hope it takes that up.We have not heard that from it today. We have heard the cynical nasty comments from people like Judith Collins. Let us hear from the National Party members the actual plan for the economy of the future where the whole of Parliament can support it. Today is a tragic tragic day for the National Government because it has missed the beat. It has missed the point of the last 24 hours. It has not come up with a new plan. It is flat-footed it is lost it has missed an opportunity and unfortunately that is the legacy of its economic policy."