Hutchison Paul: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hutchison Paul: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10282] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill. I must say that this bill signifies another great achievement under this excellent National Government. It was good to hear the Hon Maryan Street saying how important she thought this bill was and that she would be prepared to sacrifice some of her speaking time if that meant the bill would be passed earlier. However despite her saying she would take just a 5-minute call she could not help herself and went on for the full 10 minutes in talking about the merits of this excellent bill under the National Government. 
It is appropriate to acknowledge trade Ministers both past and present. I think of the Hon Dr Lockwood Smith—who was not acknowledged by Maryan Street—Jim Sutton Phil Goff and of course the extremely hard-working and productive Hon Tim Groser. All of those members have worked extraordinarily hard for New Zealand often under hugely difficult time constraints day and night. 
There is no doubt that this bill signifies the gathering pace of many free-trade agreements that have gone on in recent times. Those include on 1 January the agreement establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area. On 29 March the Minister of Trade Tim Groser signed the New Zealand - Hong Kong China Closer Economic Partnership agreement and of course the New Zealand - Gulf Co-operation Council free-trade agreement negotiations have been concluded. More recently John Key has just returned from a very successful visit to the United States further consolidating the Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership Agreement for which talks began in Melbourne last month. The Government has secured approvals for free-trade agreement negotiations to start with India and that again is another very significant achievement. I note that if all the free-trade agreements come to fruition it will mean that we have direct and indirect agreements with the four most populous nations on earth: China India the United States and Indonesia. That represents almost half of the planet’s population and much of the world’s economic activity. 
I thought the contribution from the Greens was a somewhat gloomy one. It cited Dr Lovelock the British scientist who has suggested an optimal world population of a billion when we have 6 billion already and when almost inevitably the world’s population will go up another 2 or 3 billion in the next 20 to 30 years. It is vital for New Zealand that we have greater opportunities for our food supply to go to these heavily populated countries. Undoubtedly with time there will be natural adjustments to population but I think it is absurd to hear the Greens suggest that the world population of 6 billion would optimally be only 1 billion. How are they possibly suggesting that we reduce the population in this short period of time from 6 billion to that much lower level? Talking about the perfect storm and 2030 of course I tell the House that countries throughout the world through such mechanisms as emissions trading systems are taking the global warming issue very seriously. 
This bill certainly signifies a great leap forward for New Zealand and a practical opportunity to increase our per capita income. That is absolutely central and vital for New Zealanders in order to have the opportunity to get better health welfare social services and education services which people such as the Greens and most New Zealanders so badly wish to have. 
I will comment on three last things—firstly the environment part of this bill. The Malaysia - New Zealand Environmental Cooperation Agreement negotiated in the context of the Malaysia free-trade agreement establishes a set of shared trade and environmental principles to promote sound environmental practices and sustainable development. The agreement is Malaysia’s first bilateral treaty on environmental cooperation negotiated in the context of a free-trade agreement. I have been to Malaysia and have seen personally the spectre of fires going on continuously in the area around Kuala Lumpur so I think it is extremely good and a step forward that the environmental aspect of the free-trade agreement has been embedded. Then of course the labour cooperation agreement negotiated in the context of the Malaysia free-trade agreement reaffirms commitment to the principles of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and is the follow-up to the declaration. 
Finally I think it is important to point out that there will be a review. The review will take place within 5 years of the agreement’s entry into force and at least every 3 years following that. So this bill is another excellent initiative under this forward-looking National Government.