McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Trade): I want to congratulate Ron Mark on a very good speech—one of the best speeches I have ever heard him make in this House. I think the only way it could have been better is if it were delivered by Shane Jones—only 6 months to wait for that.We have a new Prime Minister and a new Deputy Prime Minister who are in touch with New Zealanders and who are working hard and who are every day going out to make the lives of Kiwis up and down the country in all walks of life better. The National caucus is in tune with the voting public because we selected very easily a new leader and a new deputy and the poll results show that the public prefers our leader as Prime Minister and then our deputy below that.We now also have a new deputy leader of the Labour Party. Andrew Little and Jacinda Ardern are the dream team. Finally after 8½ years in Opposition the Labour caucus is on the same page as the voting public because the Labour caucus too prefers Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister over Andrew Little. There are only 6 months to go before she can be the leader of the Labour Party and the Leader of the Opposition and I wish her all the luck in that.This is an incredibly focused and hard-working Government. Across all portfolios we have Ministers with fresh ideas with energy who are working hard and engaging with New Zealanders and talking to them about the challenges they face and finding solutions with them to make their lives better and to make New Zealand better.I want to talk for a moment just to the area of trade which the Prime Minister has given me the honour of being responsible for. I have jotted down a list of all the engagements we have—the trade agreements we are negotiating or moving to negotiate—at the moment around the world. After 8½ years what is the Government doing? Well we had an announcement with the European Union 2 weeks ago. We have finished the scoping exercise and I expect that New Zealand and the European Union will be given a mandate to launch a free-trade agreement (FTA) negotiation with the EU later this year. It is very important to us—$20 billion worth of two-way trade. All of our competitors mainly have deals already so we will be levelling the playing field. We have also got an opportunity with the UK when it is in a position to do so to launch an FTA negotiation. It is extremely important post-Brexit that we secure ongoing preferential access to that important market for New Zealanders. The Pacific Alliance has announced that it now wants to negotiate with the world and New Zealand is on the top of its list of the countries it will choose to do a first deal with. We have got the ASEAN Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiation with ASEAN countries and six others. It is very important to us; it would be our first FTA with India. We are putting a lot of effort in there to level the playing field to fight for rights on behalf of New Zealanders. We have had a China FTA in place for 8 years which we announced last year is to be upgraded. Our two-way trade with China is $23 billion; we think we can improve that. It offers opportunities and delivers jobs in every part of the country—every part of the country and every region—as a result of that. India with a billion people—we are negotiating with it. The Gulf Cooperation Council—we are starting to see progress there and I believe there is an opportunity for us to finally put pen to paper and open up access into that important market for New Zealanders. Sri Lanka—we announced with it that we would like to have a look at a deal. It does not have many deals with the world but we decided to sit down and see what can be done again to level the playing field to make it fairer for New Zealanders overseas.And then the Trans-Pacific Partnership—whether or not there is a future for it is not clear but we are going to work as hard as we can to make sure that New Zealanders have great access into those markets. It is far too soon to say that it is finished just because one country has decided that it does not want to be involved. Anything that gives New Zealanders better access to markets overseas levels the playing field and allows New Zealanders to compete more fairly—this Government will stand up on their behalf and fight for them overseas for those rights because if we will not do it who will? The answer is nobody because nobody owes New Zealand a living.Finally I want to recognise the fact that trade agreements open the door to opportunity. Whether Governments decide to walk through that door with their businesses and their exporters to make the most of the opportunity is a choice for all of them but we need to recognise that there are many others that play an important part in that. Air New Zealand brings visitors to and from other countries here. From China we have record numbers of visitors coming on airplanes—more and more planes are good for our economy.I want to recognise one company that has shown a lot of support to New Zealand over many years and that is Emirates Airline. There are now five flights a day from Dubai to New Zealand one of them direct which means that there are more people flying here and more freight can go to this important market. It delivers for our economy and it is good for New Zealanders. This Government will continue to fight for the rights of New Zealanders for greater fairness overseas every day that we are in office. Thank you.