Penk ChrisCHRIS PENK (National—Helensville): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to rise and speak about the Estimates hearing that was conducted by the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. Various other members of the committee have already spoken to that and it's with some pleasure that I am allowed now to recount some of the extraordinary moments in that hearing by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.However just to take a step back it was an interesting time in international relations. The eyes of the world were on Singapore where the question of peace on the North Korean peninsula was being contemplated with much interest. We were discussing with the Minister of Foreign Affairs whether he thought that an accord could be reached between President Trump and of course the North Korean president Kim Jong-un. It's hard to know what to say about a strange little man wearing clothes from another era who's difficult for speakers of the English language to understand and who's deeply isolationist in outlook. But anyway enough about Winston Peters—and indeed enough about North Korea as well.Other aspects of the hearing considered the question of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the context of trade more generally. We didn't dwell too deeply on the fact that submissions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership had a very general tenor of disappointment with Government parties—with the exception of the Green Party I have to confess whose position at least has been consistent on that matter—disappointment with the Labour members and disappointment with the New Zealand First members. The number of times the word flip-flop" was used made me feel as though their position had gone from economic vandalism to economic jandal-ism and so it was that we had interesting times in the committee with that but we also had some uninteresting times. We had some very uninteresting times when the Minister's comments were somewhat banal in nature. I quote for example from the transcript of that exchange when Mr Peters started by telling us that "we are living in times that are witnessing serious global challenges and global opportunities." as though at any time in history that has not been the case. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has seen a lot more of history than most of us and for him not to have realised that that is always the case—that there are serious opportunities and serious challenges—seemed to me as I say banal at the absolute best. Hon Christopher Finlayson: What time of the day was this meeting? CHRIS PENK: The time of the meeting Mr Finlayson was rather too early for the Minister—I think that's perhaps as much as I should say—or perhaps it was too late for him. It was difficult to ascertain his condition but—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Move on. CHRIS PENK: —suffice it to say—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Order! CHRIS PENK: —that in relation to his comments at the hearing comments were made along the lines that "New Zealand needs highly competent and capable people on and offshore" and of course he is right to acknowledge the competence of his ministry but a bit of capability and a bit of competence in the ministerial chair would also be rather welcome. We heard from the Minister similarly that the upcoming APEC conference would represent a great opportunity for the country. Mr Peters noted that there would be some "18000 to 20000 visitors to these shores" many from Asia representing 18000 to 20000 new opportunities for him to insult visitors to this country. I was particularly interested in the Minister's comments that the ministry has worked to negotiate free-trade agreements and of course he is right in that respect. It would have been easier for them to conduct such work I suppose if he had not been actively working against them—and indeed the sensible people of New Zealand who support such agreements—while he was in Opposition before conducting those flip-flops that I mentioned earlier. Finally I just can't resist adding a note about Mr Peters' criticism that there is effectively not enough spending on foreign affairs matters. He noted presumably in relation to GDP figures that we spend at the level of 0.28 percent as opposed to 0.4 percent as many other countries do. If there is a person who has had more opportunity than most—and indeed more opportunity than all—in the last quarter of a century to do something about that it would be Mr Peters himself. I encourage him to do so."