Ross Jami-Lee: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoss Jami-Lee: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 12 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7988. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany): I stand to support the International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill as have others in this House—many parties in this House in fact apart from New Zealand First. It is a very good piece of legislation supporting the articles of agreement for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank—something that New Zealand must be a part of.The reason why New Zealand must be a part of this is that our economic future and our economic opportunities as a country are linked very much to Asia. New Zealand is continuing to increase its trade more and more with Asia and going forward into the future I foresee that that will only continue to increase and it will increase to the benefit of New Zealanders.But one of the constraints that is in place in Asia is a lack of infrastructure and the purpose of this bank is to try to invest in greater infrastructure improvements in Asia so Asia can grow faster. Faster growth in Asia will lead to greater demand for goods around the world and as we continue to improve our free-trade agreements and increase the number of free-trade agreements with Asian countries that will only see New Zealand benefit from a bank such as this.New Zealand First members are unfortunately very much isolated in their view on this particular matter. They have a view that New Zealand should be isolated from the rest of the world. It is a view that is detrimental to New Zealand. It is a view that is out of line with economic opportunities for New Zealand. It is a view that is very poor and if it was ever adopted by Governments in the future it would lead New Zealand to slipping further and further down the ranking tables and I do not think that the voters of New Zealand First would actually want to see that happen. The argument that Richard Prosser put on the table was that this is going to go ahead anyway so New Zealand should not be part of it. The reality is that if other nations took the view that it is going to go ahead anyway and they should not be a part of it then nothing would actually happen.We have a proud tradition as a country of standing up on the international stage. We have a proud tradition as a country of getting involved in supporting greater growth around the world. We have a proud tradition as a country that stands up for good things and this is one of them. If we took the view that trade agreements were going to go ahead whether or not we got involved then we would be left out of the pack.I guess New Zealand First members do not care about that because they are actually opposed to free trade. They are opposed to greater infrastructure investment in Asia. They are opposed to New Zealand being involved on the world stage. I do not know what they are for other than New Zealand locking itself off from the rest of the world. This bill will aid New Zealand’s international opportunities. It will aid future growth for New Zealanders and it will aid future trade for New Zealand firms. That is why many parties in this House are supporting this bill.