Sutton Jim: Appropriation (2005/06 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Sutton Jim: Appropriation (2005/06 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:22258] 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 The Budget and this third reading of the Appropriation (2005/06 Estimates) Bill are all about the sort of country we are building in New Zealand today—a country in which the regions are thriving; a country in which we are a gateway to the world and are sending our exports to all the markets of the world where we are respected and independent; and a country in which we are building a skills-based economy. Our people are getting more and more skills and more and more education. We are taking new initiatives by the month to increase the accessibility of advanced training and education for our young people. But what do we have from the other side of the House? It is opposition all the way—opposition for its own sake. 
It is quite apparent that the National Party would say anything—anything at all—to get elected in the forthcoming election. It does not have much hope but it is prepared to sell out our nuclear-free policy which is supported by an overwhelming majority of all New Zealanders in order to advance its party political vested interests. National members will say anything Dr Brash will say anything and Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith PhD as his friends call him will say anything to get elected. Dr Smith wants his old job back but he is not going to get it. It is not just about whether New Zealand is nuclear-free; it is about whether New Zealand would rush to war any time Australia or the United States decided to take pre-emptive action or to make a pre-emptive strike somewhere. Would we go? Well Simon Power said we would go wherever the United States goes wherever George Bush goes. 
What will National do if the Americans ratify the Kyoto Protocol—which they are likely to do one of these days? Will National do a flip-flop? You betcha! It will absolutely do a flip-flop then. National ought to do one now because it would be good for New Zealand to have bipartisan support for tackling the desperate problem of human activity - induced climate change. But the point is whether we are going to rush to war. What are the fiscal consequences of rushing off to war every time Uncle Sam or the Australian Prime Minister decide that a pre-emptive strike needs to be made? I say that the fiscal consequences of that would not be good at all. The issue is about whether New Zealand makes its own decisions. Do we have the capacity to make our own decisions in the world? Are we an independent sovereign nation? 
Now that is not just about the Budget; it is about whether we have the moral strength to stand up for what we believe in and to make our own decisions and that is a very important matter. At the moment New Zealand has credibility around the world. We are respected because we cooperate on matters that we approve of. We work on the side of people who are trying to do good things in the world. We stand up against things that we think are bad wrong or mistaken and we are respected for it. No matter how big a nation it is it is worth its being able to say: “New Zealand agrees with us. New Zealand is prepared to do an FTA with us.” That is money in the bank for New Zealand and it keeps our reputation high but our opponents would get rid of that reputation by being slavish followers of our traditional allies. 
 The days when New Zealand would say: “Where Britain goes we go” without knowing first where Britain was going are gone. We are a fully independent nation. We do not rush to war because our good friends rush to war. We would go to war only if it were a last resort and necessary for the security of ourselves and other countries that share our values. That will be the most important issue of the forthcoming election. 
Of course it has fiscal implications. Every week Cabinet has to make tough decisions about what we spend on the resources needed to have an independent foreign policy an independent military policy and an independent trade policy. Those things do not come for nothing. We have to put the resources into them. Thank goodness that we on this side of the House have moral fibre and are prepared to commit those resources to them in order to maintain New Zealand as an independent sovereign nation that makes its own decisions on the basis of what it sees as right. [ 
Interruption 
] The member opposite who is bellowing away into space should take a lesson from that and stand up for an independent sovereign New Zealand that does the right thing in the world. 
Let me turn to the issues in the Budget that are dear to me—biosecurity trade training a skills-based economy and thriving regions. All those things are dear to my heart. This Government is funding and delivering bigger and better results on the trade front than any Government I can remember. We have delivered three new closer economic partnership agreements or free-trade agreements in our 6 years so far. We have another clutch in negotiation. In 9 long desert years the previous Government managed to start one negotiation and completed none—not one single little free-trade agreement could it complete. There was no rain in the desert for 9 long years under National Winston Peters and the rest of them. I would not like to list all the coalition partners National had. Even when National was in a coalition involving one other member or a one-person party it would be in two minds. How much unity did National display? Not a lot. 
As well as delivering on the trade front which of course underlines and bankrolls our prosperity in New Zealand this Government has delivered on the biosecurity front far better than previous Governments. I must say that the only rational response to the ever-increasing number of tourists and travellers and the ever-increasing flood of sea freight containers coming into New Zealand whereby every one of those passengers every sea freight container and every passenger and air crew carry-on bag is a potential source of a catastrophic biosecurity breach to New Zealand is one of continuous improvement and this Government is delivering that. 
The previous Government could only cut cut cut. The “mother of all Budgets” did not leave much room for manoeuvre; things just got worse and worse. Labour has been cleaning up the incursions of moths bugs viruses and bacteria that flooded into New Zealand under the previous National Government. We have been slowly working our way through that huge list. National allowed hundreds of incursions per year. It allowed passengers to come into the country without being in sight of a detector dog and without being within cooee of a soft-tissue X-ray machine. No more! 
 They all go through the process now. Even visiting heads of State go through it. Their bags are X-rayed and analysed they go before the detector dogs and if there is any undeclared risk material all their bags get searched—even visiting senior politicians and heads of State. We have the most rigorous watertight biosecurity system at the border of any nation on earth and we will continue to make it better for the sake of New Zealand.