Guy Nathan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: General Debate[Sitting date: 14 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7213. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries): What a disappointing speech that was from Grant Robertson where he did not even mention anything to do with the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He did not mention this Government’s plan of growing jobs in the region and what he did not even mention also was that this is a day of celebration. We should be patting the Minister of Finance on the back and saying “Well done for getting the Government’s books back into surplus.”—$414 million back into surplus. A target that was set right back in 2011 has been achieved today. Of course Grant Robertson could not even stand up in the House—because he did not have the dignity—to say well done to this side of the House.What Grant Robertson did not say is what an awful caucus the Labour Party had on Tuesday—what an awful caucus. You know the big debate it had in there upstairs this week was the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Andrew Little missing in action all of last week left it to Annette King. She was out to lunch. She did not even know what she was talking about with trade. Then of course we have had other contributions—anyone with an economic bone in the Labour caucus knows that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is huge for the New Zealand economy. I am looking at David Parker. He is there nodding. He knows how important the Trans-Pacific Partnership is for the New Zealand Government. Then if you think about the person who sits next to him David Shearer—I was down here a few weeks ago in the last few days of the last sitting when we were debating the Korean free-trade agreement and David Shearer gave an amazing speech in support of the Korean free-trade agreement. It was a fantastic speech. It was like it was delivered by someone on this side of the House.So you know why Labour’s caucus this week was so fascinating? It was because anyone with an economic bone in its caucus—and I admit there are not too many of them: David Parker David Shearer Phil Goff—even a guy who we do not know much about Peeni Henare who is actually an Auckland-based MP—said that Labour is all about free trade. So there you have it. On that side of the House some of those members are out there supporting free trade but they cannot decide whether to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership so they are out there confusing the public saying: “Oh well we do not think this is good enough. We should have gotten a better deal on dairy. Oh well they should have done more here.”I will tell you what here is my prediction this afternoon: Labour will vote for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Damien O’Connor “Stewie” Nash David Parker David Shearer and Phil Goff will push this through because they know it is good for regional New Zealand. They know it is good for jobs. They know ultimately it is good for the New Zealand economy. We are talking about 800 million people who are potential consumers of New Zealand products. We are talking about over a third of the world’s economy. We are talking about New Zealand pushing hard for 25 years to get free-trade access into the US and Japan finally achieved. The US is the No. 1 economy Japan is the third-biggest Mexico is the 11th—we had to be there. I am delighted that Tim Groser has managed to achieve what he has done—and his officials. I think it is right that he acknowledges officials across the whole of Government who have been working really hard for a number of years to get this important free-trade agreement where it is today. We are talking about tariff savings of around $260 million and the potential to earn $2.7 billion by 2030.What I also want to talk about is more good news for our primary sector. When you look at what has been happening in beef and lamb they have just released the financial report for the last 12 months. Beef exports for the first time in 20 years are higher than lamb and mutton. It has broken through the $3 billion mark to about $3.2 billion and lamb and mutton exports are about $3 billion—fantastic. So actually farmers up and down the country are celebrating the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We never got what we wanted completely on dairy but it is hugely beneficial for our meat exporters for our farmers for our growers for our horticultural growers and also for our viticulture guys who are exporting wine. So a very good week for the Government and a terrible disaster week for the Labour Party.