Tremain Chris: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Tremain Chris: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise this morning to debate the Malaysian free-trade agreement. I will not be taking the approach that my learned colleague Kennedy Graham took in discussing neoclassical orthodoxies. I have to say that most New Zealanders around the country are not particularly focused on neoclassical orthodoxies— 
Hon Maryan Street 
: It’s neo-liberal not neoclassical. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Regardless whether it is neo-liberal or whatever most New Zealanders do not work in that sort of league and really understand things at a much lower level. Once the Green Party starts to understand that and speak at a level that most New Zealanders understand they will be in a far better space. But far be it from me to advise the Green Party on how to run its politics. 
I will bring the debate back to a context that most New Zealanders understand—to delivering on promises in elections. That is what National is doing. We made a big commitment to this country when we stood at the election on having a strong growth agenda. We had six levers that we were going to pull extremely hard to ensure that that growth agenda came through. 
The first lever was a tax system that encouraged Kiwis to get out there and work hard. We are delivering on that and that is fantastic. The second lever was an investment in infrastructure to provide a framework for businesses to work under to grow and to provide jobs. It is businesses that provide jobs in our economy and the other side does not understand that. We are pulling very hard on that second lever to make sure that we deliver jobs and growth to the economy. 
The third lever was an attack on compliance costs and bureaucracy. We saw that with the aviation bill yesterday with which we are reining back compliance costs. We are making cheaper the cost of running businesses and getting our product to market. Again that is another fantastic example of National delivering on its election promises. 
The fourth lever was controlling Government spending and focusing on delivering efficiencies and value for money in the Government sector. This Government is delivering really well on that I am proud to say which is fantastic. The fifth lever that is part of our vision and strategy to grow the economy was lifting the standards in education. Throughout the country we are seeing standards throughout primary and secondary schools and tertiary education lifting and growing. 
But the area I want to focus on today is the sixth lever and that is innovation and trade. We have seen in this urgency debate two examples of trade bills coming through firstly in respect of the Hong Kong free-trade agreement and secondly in respect of the Malaysian free-trade agreement which is before us on the table today. It is a big part of our trade agenda and is supported by the Opposition and most parties within this Parliament with the exception of the Greens. Most parties understand that exporting is the key driver of our economy. That is what will grow businesses and grow jobs and it gives us options within government to collect more tax over time and deliver better education and better health services. That is how it works I say to Mr Graham. 
Rather than focusing again on neo-liberal orthodoxies I really want to give voters out there a really good example of what this means at the coalface. I will use the example of Zespri whom Maryan Street mentioned yesterday when talking about the kiwifruit industry. I will give members an exact example of how this free-trade agreement will work for New Zealanders and for Kiwi business using a green product with a low carbon footprint which is the kiwifruit industry. Zespri is a company that is getting behind this Government’s agenda. It has set a growth projection for their industry of taking kiwifruit sales from $1 billion to $3 billion by 2025. It is absolutely fantastic to see what they are doing. If we compare the growth in the kiwifruit industry with some of our other industries we can see what an industry like the kiwifruit industry can do when it gets its whole plan together and goes well. 
Right now the kiwifruit industry is up there at 9.88 percent growth annually year on year even ahead of the dairy industry. We would not think that but dairy is at 9.71 percent growth. The kiwifruit industry is even ahead of the meat industry at 5.62 percent. So the kiwifruit industry is getting behind this Government’s agenda is really on board and is taking it ahead. 
The key points that Zespri spoke about which will ensure that they can grow and achieve that $3 billion is maintaining a single point of entry. That is something other industries around the country particularly the meat and wool industries need to have a strong think about if they are to grow their own industries and utilise the free-trade agreements that we are bringing out. If we have a look at those growth figures I was talking about before we see that the wool industry in particular has not grown at all in the last 10 years; in fact it has gone backwards. It has to have a long hard think about how it will take its industry to the wider market to utilise the free-trade agreements. 
If we think about an industry that has a green sustainable product then it has to be wool. There has to be a story to tell there. There has to be a way that farmers can drive more revenue into their profit/loss accounts and balance sheets. They can use wool to grow jobs in this country so I think they have a lot of thinking to do there. 
In terms of Zespri a big chunk of driving the growth to $3 billion is through using these free-trade agreements. In their document they are fully behind this Government taking their industry to a $3 billion level. I think that that is to be applauded. With the free-trade agreements we are in a great space. I am proud to be supporting the bill at this point in time. Thank you.