Locke Keith: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — In Committee 
Locke Keith: New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17358] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 I am glad that Chris Auchinvole has talked about the importance of knowing the origin of products and that we have had all this talk about certificates of origin. That is very good but it seems to me that certificates of origin are only the first step. Sure it enables the country of China to find out that the goods are coming from New Zealand and to get that legitimation and vice versa—and hopefully we will get certificates that these goods are genuinely coming from China—but that is for the bureaucrats. The bureaucrats will know that but what about the people? This Government supported by the National Party has refused to adopt the Australian procedure of having compulsory labelling of the country of origin on food products. It absolutely refuses to go along with that and surely that is in contradiction to everything that the National Party speaker has just said. 
Sue Kedgley had a member’s bill which was supported by the Maori Party and New Zealand First to enable us to be in tandem with Australia. It would have offered consumers—in this case Australian and New Zealand consumers—the choice between particular products based on their country of origin and also the choice to have the right to do so. When we raised those issues in Parliament we got lectures from Annette King and Phil Goff who said that it was only a question of food safety. They said that the Government guarantees food safety that anything coming from China or anywhere else is guaranteed to be safe and that that was all we needed to know. We said that consumers have a right to know and to make a choice on whatever basis they liked. Consumers might not like the human rights situation in the Sudan or Zimbabwe and they might make a choice on that basis if they wanted to. 
So even though the National Party talks about freedom and all the rest of it it will not allow the citizens of New Zealand the freedom to choose on any basis they want whether they accept the product in terms of its country of origin. It is a basic democratic right. 
Chinese garlic is already coming in and selling at a few cents a bunch and it is completely undermining the New Zealand domestic product. Most consumers when buying that garlic do not know it comes from China and they do not know about the conditions it is produced in. They do not know which toxic materials may be associated with it. They know nothing about that because it is not labelled and they should have the right to have it labelled. 
Why should we be against the Australian position—the democratic position in Australia—on this question? It just shows that this free-trade agreement is not about helping the New Zealand people to make proper choices or anything else. 
John Hayes 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. The debate we are hearing at the moment has nothing to do with Part 2. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: Speaking to the point of order Madam Chairperson this part is all about this issue. Chris Auchinvole went on in his speech about certificates from the country of origin. My debate is that this should be extended and complemented by having consumers know that fact as well as the bureaucrats. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: I actually heard and said to the Clerk beside me that the member was taking the debate wider than the certificate of origin as it applies to this free-trade agreement but he had begun with Part 2. I now ask the member to come back more closely to Part 2. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: I will accept your judgment Madam Chairperson. But members should recognise that in the Green Party’s view one cannot separate the question of certificates of origin that are provided to the State machinery in another country from that of the certificates of origin—that is stickers on the food or on the basket of food—that are available to the New Zealand people. 
We could if we wished move an amendment to the effect that these certificates of origin be complemented with a requirement for them to be made available to the people of China perhaps or be made available on Chinese goods being bought by the people of New Zealand through having just that additional bit. I am sure the amendment would be supported by the Maori Party and New Zealand First. It does not need to be the whole certificate but just a little label stating perhaps the abbreviation COI—that is certificate of origin—and the word “China”. It is not a very long word to put on a label: C-h-i-n-a. That could be done so that the procedure does not stop at the level of the State bureaucracy. I think that possibly over the dinner break we might be able to work out a little amendment to that effect although it may be too difficult in that short time.