McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Madam Speaker thank you. If Minister O'Connor has said that this agreement with the UK is the gold standard unfortunately for so many of our exporters the agreement he spoke about—concluded by the Prime Minister a few weeks ago in Brussels—is a brass standard. The reason for that is: the Minister has spoken widely about the great benefits that are being delivered for the agricultural sector in New Zealand through the UK free trade agreement (FTA) but actually it is not the case when it comes to the EU deal.I too would like to recognise the trade negotiation team and particularly Brad Burgess who's our Ambassador to Ireland at the moment for the great work he and others have done. Brad led the trade policy dialogue that took place long before this agreement was launched and that was the important first stepping stone to actually getting the launch and to getting agreement from the United Kingdom that they should forge a relationship a trade agreement with New Zealand. The sad news for Brad is that after his hard work everything he's done for the country to make sure this is a good deal that can deliver for Kiwis he's about to get the sack get sent home so the Speaker can go and take his place. That's the type of thanks you get from the Labour Government. But he and others have done a great job and actually they deserve a huge amount of credit.At the time the UK announced that they were to leave the European Union New Zealand officials and Ministers were there very very quickly to talk to them about the importance of a trade agreement with New Zealand—but more than that to talk to them about the type of trade agreement or relationships they should have with the world. I want to particularly recognise a former trade Minister for the United Kingdom Liam Fox who made the first clear absolute commitment to New Zealand to me when I was there at a Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting when he said that New Zealand would be the first cab off the rank along with Australia once they had left the European Union. I am so very very pleased that the UK honoured that commitment they made to New Zealand and that this Government has followed through with them—the new Government in New Zealand—to make sure that we got a trade deal because trade is important for New Zealand. We produce more than we can consume. We are an export nation and we often are held at a disadvantage. To the negotiators this is a good deal. It is one of the better ones that we could have hoped for from the United Kingdom and it lays out the type of agreement we should always be aiming to achieve whenever New Zealand goes out to negotiate. You often only get one go at this one bite of the cherry or in the case of the EU deal one bite of the onion—because we have tariff-free access from day one for onions into the EU and that's a good thing for our onion producers.But in as far as how good this agreement is unfortunately—the Minister also talked at some length in his speech about the EU deal and it hasn't delivered in the same way and unfortunately I fear that we weren't able to even come close to emulating what's in the UK agreement. The commitment the UK made to us early on about wanting to be free traders about setting the bar very high and as far as free trade agreements should be about free trade there should be few if any restrictions at all—that's what the UK said to us that's what they fronted up and delivered to us in this agreement and that's why we are in part looking to pass legislation in the House very quickly so it can ratify and enter into place.But I've got a question for the Minister—and I know he can't answer now and therefore he'll have many other opportunities to. In the Farmers Weekly soon after this agreement was signed he spoke at length about the extra trade that there would be the unfettered access for our dairy products and our meat into the UK market some of it over 15 years but actually as a great win. When just a few weeks ago with the Prime Minister they announced that they were ending negotiation with the European Union and accepting what was on the table he published another article in the Farmers Weekly where he spoke about actually how good our dairy and meat access to the EU was under that agreement.Minister you said that we already had 75000 tonnes of butter access 11000 tonnes of cheese access. Well actually that's not correct. That's not what we had with the European Union. That was their figures and those were the figures pre - Brexit split. If you add what we actually had on the table for butter plus what was gained for butter with tariffs within the quota we are worse off for butter under the EU agreement than we were before the negotiation started. So I'd ask him to go and clarify that because members of this side and I have started to receive emails from the agricultural sector farmers who are confused or concerned that actually it's not as good as he said. That needs to be clarified because his figures were wrong. The reason I state that is this Minister and the Government go out on the international stage and say to New Zealanders Trust us we know what's best for you and we will negotiate the best deal that we can." In the case of the EU they said "We have negotiated the best deal that we can." But when the Minister comes home to sell that to our farmers he gets his figures wrong—just like at the beginning of this debate; he had to read it out again.The reason it is so important is actually we are only as good as our next trade negotiation not our last one. In that respect the UK deal is a very good one for New Zealand. Our negotiators have done a great job and the Government made the right decision to conclude negotiation at the time they did and sign this deal and get it on paper. However with the EU deal they didn't to that because it isn't as good in many respects as the UK one was. Yes it's challenging to negotiate with the EU when it comes to agricultural access but if New Zealand won't sit at the table and continue to make the case for free trade to bring down barriers to not have subsidies that distort markets around agriculture and so on—if we won't do that with the EU one of the greatest most protectionist trading groups of countries in the world well what does that say when next we go to negotiate?We're only as good as the last deal. That's not the UK one it's the EU one. And when the Minister goes to India one day—although he said it's too tough to go to India at the moment—or goes to the US or somewhere else sadly here is what will happen: they will look at the deal and the Minister will say "We got this great deal with the UK and over 15 years there's complete tariff-free access for all of our product. We should do the same thing." And they'll say "Ah but here's the problem: just before the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern went to the European Union to try and finalise a deal. She sent a signal through the media that they were willing to do a deal that actually wasn't in the best interests of New Zealand and that they were willing to settle. And here's what happened: the EU negotiators who come under pressure from their farming interests heard that and they offered no more in those areas."You know it is important that we level the playing field and we have better access to the European Union particularly as the UK has left. But actually—Dr Duncan Webb: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The first reading—I refer to Speaker's Ruling 108/1 which makes it clear that a first reading is about the bill before the House—is relatively narrow. That speech might be appropriate in the second reading but it's not in the first.Hon TODD McCLAY: Madam Speaker speaking to the point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): I do want to remind the member to come back to this bill. Yes—Hon TODD McCLAY: Yes well speaking to the point of order—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Yes the Minister—if I can just finish. The Minister actually spent maybe a minute talking about the EU free-trade agreement but this particular first reading is about the UK free-trade agreement. The member has spent most of his time talking about the EU FTA. We will have a chance to talk about the EU FTA later on this year but please come back to the UK free-trade agreement. Thank you.Hon TODD McCLAY: Thank you Madam Speaker. So as I was saying our negotiators have done a good job in this agreement. It has levelled the playing field and it will help New Zealand business and industry particularly our agricultural sector gain more from the UK market. In that our negotiators actually deserve a great vote of thanks and the recognition. The Government rightly chose the time to finish the negotiation and conclude with the United Kingdom and sign this and that was a good thing in as far as the New Zealand economy is concerned. We owe it to Liam Fox a Minister of the UK who long before negotiations started committed to a high-quality outcome and us being one of the first cabs off the rank with Australia. They delivered on that.Sadly it was 2½ minutes the Minister spoke about the EU deal and we can't draw the same comparison to this deal because actually it's not that it's misleading—it gives false hope to our farmers. The National Party was very pleased to be there in the early days in Government talking to the UK opening the doors to make sure that we had a chance in the shortest period of time possible to do the highest quality deal that could be done with the United Kingdom. That's been delivered on. It's a great shame that the Government and the Prime Minister decided to conclude the EU negotiation because when that Minister next goes to another country to start a negotiation they won't be talking about the UK agreement that we are voting on today; they will look at the EU agreement and realise that New Zealand under this Government is willing to settle for less than they should and they are no longer willing to argue the point that free trade is good for countries and good for economies. In that respect for our dairy farmers and our meat farmers they've let New Zealand down."