Smith Lockwood: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Smith Lockwood: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10840] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I rise to support Don Brash leader of the National Party in his motion of no confidence in this Labour Government. It would seem that most New Zealanders also support the motion of Don Brash. Tonight’s  
Holmes  
show 
survey had the biggest response to any issue the  
Holmes  
show has ever surveyed—34575 responses. What percentage of those responses supported the direction of the leadership of Don Brash? Ninety percent—that is 31025 of them. Ninety percent of respondents said they supported what Don Brash was standing up for and just 10 percent differed. Just 10 percent supported what this Helen Clark Labour Government is doing to this country: the divisive race-based policies of her Government. 
I was at Orewa when Don Brash made that great speech. It is part of my electorate and I sat with my constituents when Don Brash spoke from the heart about his concerns about the future of New Zealand if we continue down a path whereby under the law we treat people differently based on their race. What Don Brash expressed was a very simple problem but he expressed it in very plain language and it just touched the hearts of a nation. We are now seeing New Zealanders turning to Don Brash’s leadership because they can see that he is prepared to face up to the issues that confront this country—unlike Helen Clark who wants to have a bet each way. She wants to kowtow to Maori and say “yeah we will give you customary title” and she then tries to pretend that that does not give Maori what it does in fact deliver—the ability to have major control over our foreshore and seabed. What the public of New Zealand is seeing is a new honesty in politics from Don Brash. 
Tonight I want to refer to the headline in today’s  
Dominion Post 
: “NZ jobs fear in Aussie-US trade deal”. That is a major headline and we have to ask ourselves what the basis of it is. Australia announced yesterday a trade deal with the United States whereby from the start of that agreement 97 percent of Australian-manufactured goods will have free access to the United States market. In the United States Government procurement is big business—worth almost $300 billion which is well over twice heading towards three times the size of the New Zealand economy. New Zealand does not have free access to that huge market. 
From day one of this trade agreement Australia and Australian businesses will have free access to that almost $300 billion procurement industry. From day one of this trade agreement two-thirds of the agricultural tariffs faced by Australia in the Hunited States will be reduced to zero and a further 9 percent reduced to zero in 4 years. That is three-quarters of agricultural tariffs for Australia to the United States eliminated within 4 years. It is little wonder the headline states: “NZ jobs fear in Aussie-US trade deal” because that trade deal is a major breakthrough for Australia and New Zealand has nothing.  
We value our wine industry. The United States is a huge market for our wine industry. Over the next 11 years Australia will have zero tariffs for the wine going into the United States but not New Zealand. Our wine industry will still have to pay tariffs and suffer the disadvantage of paying those tariffs. 
What did Helen Clark say to Parliament today about this huge issue? Economically it is probably the biggest issue facing New Zealand today. The one sentence about that issue in Helen Clark’s entire speech to Parliament today was this: “In the near term we will be analysing the details of the proposed free-trade agreement between Australia and the United States and its likely impact on New Zealand.” There was nothing more—no commitment to the people of New Zealand to deliver a free-trade deal for New Zealand that is at least as good as Australia’s. Where was the commitment from Helen Clark to stand up and fight for New Zealand? There was nothing. There was just a whimpering gutless little sentence saying that they will analyse the details of the deal. That is a disgrace. Helen Clark has perpetrated on New Zealand the greatest foreign policy failure since the Labour Party’s fiasco around the USS  
Buchanan 
 in 1985. 
Hon Annette King 
: What a joke you are. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: What is her name—Annette King? She says it is a joke. I say to her that if she thinks that New Zealand’s missing out on a trade deal with the United States is a joke she should resign her position. At the moment every Australian enjoys an income level of $170 to $200 a week more than New Zealanders. If New Zealand does not achieve a similar trade deal by how much will that gap widen? Will it be up to $300 a week? I challenge Labour members to tell New Zealand by how much the income gap will widen between the workers of New Zealand and the workers of Australia. At the moment it stands at almost $200 a week difference in income. If we do not get something similar to the trade deal that Australia has that gap will increase significantly. 
When New Zealand lost the hosting rights alongside Australia to the Rugby World Cup there was an outcry because it cost New Zealand millions of dollars to lose those hosting rights. That loss was piggy-bank stuff compared with the loss for New Zealand if we do not achieve a free-trade agreement. When Helen Clark met President Bush at APEC last year—members will remember the significant pull-aside she had with George Bush—she said afterwards that she had explained the seriousness of the investment diversion if Australia got a free-trade deal and New Zealand did not. I have the quote here from when she said it. 
I want Helen Clark to now tell New Zealand how serious that is. I want her to do something about the seriousness the decline in the relationship between New Zealand and Australia and New Zealand and the United States that has seen New Zealand do the unthinkable—or Australia do the unthinkable. A few years ago it would have been unthinkable for Australia to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the United States and leave New Zealand out of it. We are Anzac comrades. Australia and New Zealand share so much of their history together and now Australia felt it could not take New Zealand with it in negotiating that trade deal. New Zealand’s relationship with the United States is so bad that Australia did not want the baggage of our appalling relationship with the United States. 
I say to Helen Clark Prime Minister of New Zealand and her Labour Government that they should fix up our relationship with the United States and Australia or it will be on their heads that New Zealanders will go down and down compared with the income of Australians if we do not achieve a similar trade deal. They should be held accountable and they will not deliver. There is no way they can deliver.