Goldsmith Paul: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: General Debate[Sitting date: 04 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7703. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): That was a very interesting contribution by Richard Prosser from New Zealand First talking about the rural economy—from a party the New Zealand First Party that has consistently over the last few decades refused to have any support for reform of the Resource Management Act which is an important part of the economy. It has always opposed any reforms never voted for reforms and so I do not have any time for its views on helping get the New Zealand economy ahead.This is an exciting time for the New Zealand economy and for New Zealanders as a whole. This is an exciting time. If you look back over New Zealand history you keep being told about the time back in 1951 when New Zealand was the third-wealthiest country in the world and it has all gone downhill since then. That was one of the times of course—it was a very unusual moment—when most of the developed world was still sort of recovering from the Second World War. So it was the most unusual moment that you could possibly pick out butthe main point of our prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s was the fact that we had an open door to the UK market and the UK was one of the wealthiest countries in the world.That was taken away from us in the 1970s when the UK joined the European Economic Community and since then New Zealand has been wandering in the wilderness in a tough world where nobody has to take our produce and nobody has to be kind to us or not put up tariffs and make life difficult for our exporters. We have struggled in that difficult environment for 30 or 40 years and New Zealand’s living standards have fallen. We have slowly over the years been piecing together a way to get back into global markets and we made great success in the 1980s with CER in Australia. We ground our way through the World Trade Organization processes over a long time and great progress was made with the free-trade agreement with China which has greatly boosted our living standards—Hon David Cunliffe: Thank you to the Labour Government.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: —and has carried us through the global financial crisis and the recession so much better than we would have been otherwise. And I do congratulate the Labour Government on its foresight and its contribution in that way. That is why I grieve that Labour’s commitment to open economies and free trade seems to have altered.So for now we have had the great success over the last few weeks of the agreement around the Trans-Pacific Partnership which would give New Zealanders access to the largest economy in the world and 40 percent of the global economy and what a marvellous opportunity that will be for New Zealand. We will be well and truly back in the game internationally with access to China access to the largest economy in the world through the Trans-Pacific Partnership and now on top of that we have got Mr Groser doing his excellent work in the EU and we have prospects of getting into that very difficult market. So I have great optimism looking ahead to the next couple of decades that New Zealanders have the opportunity to do so well and I back New Zealand businesses to do well in that open context.In my area just today or yesterday we announced some work in the geographical indications side of the wine industry. The New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Report 2015 shows that New Zealand wines actually have the second highest average value after the French wines internationally and that all ultimately comes down to the strength of the stories that lie behind our wine industry and our places—a Marlborough sauvignon blanc and Martinborough and all those places like Gimblett Gravels and places that I am sure members will know quite a lot about. This piece of legislation will help buttress and strengthen that brand and that story behind the New Zealand wines and it will enable our winemakers to defend that in the New Zealand market. Also once you have a geographical indicator signed off in New Zealand that makes it a lot easier to get that recognised internationally.The other thing I wanted to mention was that New Zealand came second in the world for the World Bank Group’s ease of doing business index out of 189 countries continuing to do well—first in starting a businesses first in protecting minority investors—and we continue in so many ways trying to make it easier for New Zealand businesses to do well. The patents bill which I introduced just yesterday brings a single trans-Tasman patent regime—just another way to stop having to duplicate your patent applications. But the most important thing that a Government can do is actually provide that strong stable environment and be fiscally sustainable such as having a Budget that is back in surplus. When you have that sustainability that leads to confidence and when you have confidence in the economy that leads to investment and it is only investment that leads to growth and jobs and that is how we raise our living standards in New Zealand.I am very interested to see who invited Jeremy Corbyn to be the guest speaker at the Labour Party conference this weekend. I think it was Mr Little. Why should it not be time—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.