Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): It is my pleasure to stand up in opposition to this enabling legislation and to take this opportunity to tell the Minister of Trade to tell the Minister of Transport who for some reason wanted to make some comment here this afternoon to wake up—just wake up. You guys have brought us to this debate today knowing that you are wasting the House's time. You are wasting the money of the people of New Zealand bringing this debate to the House today.Minister you asked what the future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPPA) was. I tell you that the future of the TPPA is nothing about what it looks like right now. What you sold the country as a trade deal will not be brought back to New Zealand resembling anything like it does now. Years from now years from now when the US gets around to creating some kind of trade deal—it might be called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); I doubt that very much—it would look nothing like it does now. So the enabling legislation that is being debated this afternoon will contribute nothing to the enabling of whatever that trade agreement might look like in the future.So it was earlier today that the leader of New Zealand First the Rt Hon Winston Peters stood up in this House and asked for the House to discard this bill from the Order Paper. It was a genuine request because we know how valuable our time is and how much the public pay for us to be here to debate legislation and to debate enabling legislation like we have here today. What happened? National voted against it. ACT voted against it. United Future voted against it.So here we are with the patron saint of failed causes pitching trade to New Zealand not the TPP. The purpose of the briefing notes to the members on that side of the House seemed to be to tell us how wonderful trade is. I could not agree more with that argument. New Zealand First agrees wholeheartedly that trade is vital to the future of this country. In opposition to the TPP at every step we offered up solutions and we offered up alternatives so that we could move forward as a country and actually trade with countries overseas. But at every step we were blocked. Government members did not want to hear. They were selling us their spin on how wonderful the TPP was. It is not even called a trade deal; it is enabling legislation that locks in corporate power. It locks in corporate privilege at the cost of democracy.As the previous speaker noted in observing the language of the trade deal itself the country has the right to make legislation for its benefit basically unless it contravenes the terms of the TPP which were onerous and went well beyond trade itself. In fact the trade deal was sold to the New Zealand public as a golden deal that would increase our GDP by less than 1 percent. That was the National Party's own analysis—0.8 percent. When it gave that number—and I cannot remember how ridiculous it was the actual number; it was tiny and in 20 years from now—what it failed to tell the public was that the gains that were formulated for that number were only a third to do with the reduction of actual trade tariffs. Two-thirds of that number were supposedly gained from non-tariff barriers or the removal of them.For example one of those supposed non-tariff barriers is our banking system. I do not know how that can be calculated as a non-tariff barrier because it is already predominantly foreign owned and is already expert at raking billions of dollars out of the New Zealand economy. One of the other non-tariff barriers that the National Government failed to mention in its pitch to sell the supposed trade agreement to New Zealanders was around the reduction of customs and border legislation. It said: That will save millions of dollars in lowering our customs' standard."That is genuinely part of that TPPA that was supposedly going to make everyone millions of dollars. Never mind the issues that we have had with seeds sprouting across the country that are compromising our agriculture. Never mind the issues that we have had with moths and pests coming into this country in a customs programme that is already compromised. That was an advantage sold to New Zealand and given a dollar value.It is absolutely unacceptable which is why it is a privilege to stand up in opposition to this enabling legislation today. The National Government members over there I do not think realise the irony of their situation. Today they put a motion to the House to congratulate Donald Trump on becoming the new President-Elect of the United States yet here they are now trying to fast track legislation that would enable a supposed trade agreement with a man and a country who have said that they do not want it—the arrogance of it. Fifty million - plus people voted for President-Elect Trump like that or not. The main reason for their voting was opposition to the elitist agreements that have enabled corporate privilege over the last 35 years and the TPP is one of those agreements on steroids.That is the reality of the situation and that is the arrogance of the National Government in congratulating Trump this afternoon and then in the very next hour doing everything it can to say "We don't care what you think. We don't care what 50 million Americans think. We're gonna push this enabling legislation through." even though as I pointed out to Mr Bridges earlier it will have no bearing on future trade negotiations with the United States at any time in the future. Mr Bridges asked and questioned whether moving forward it could possibly happen. Mr Bridges here is a quote: "In the US the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said the TPP had no chance of going through under President Obama before Mr Trump takes office in January."Hon Simon Bridges: No chance. No chance.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: Absolutely no chance. Thank you for your serious demeanour Mr Bridges.I want to wrap up by saying that this was not a trade deal; this was an attempt to bypass democracy. Even the 0.8 percent gain on GDP was not a true figure for those supposed tariff reductions. I have said it before and I will say it again even when New Zealand First presented legislation to the House on for example removing the investor-State dispute settlement provisions we presented to the House at the same time what an alternative mechanism might look like on how the House and the Parliament itself could have a more meaningful engagement in the conversation around trade and trade deals rather than leaving it to the executive. There is legislation in the ballot box right now under my name aiming to achieve that.Trump's victory arose from the Establishment treating ordinary Americans as disposable units. That is exactly what the National Government is doing to New Zealanders now with the House's time today—disposable units. It does not care about middle New Zealand about the hard-working businesses. More than 60 percent of the public opposed the agreement. More than two-thirds—more than two-thirds—of small business opposed it. I went to many of the same places that Mr Bridges did when he talked about Tauranga and Rotorua and talking to small business. It was hard to find anyone who supported it. They were sold a line about trade and this deal is not a trade agreement.I conclude by saying that this is a waste of the House's time. The public deserve better from that Government. New Zealand First will support any efforts to engage with countries in real trade deals meaningful trade deals that benefit all New Zealanders."