McClay Todd: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5384. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs): It is a pleasure to take a call in this part of the debate on Vote Foreign Affairs and Trade. Particularly I would like to commend I suppose all of the members of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for the useful report that they have put together. Of course we have heard from other speakers about the great accomplishments in the area of the foreign affairs of New Zealand and therefore the Government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully over the last year. Of course that is about our accession—our moving up and being elected—to the UN Security Council.Over the 3 or 4 or 5 years that Mr McCully and Sir Jim McLay and others were campaigning on behalf of New Zealand for this seat on the Security Council there were members of this House who said that it would never happen. They said that New Zealand would not get the recognition that Minister McCully was seeking and some said that it was a waste of effort a waste of time and—dare I say it—a waste of taxpayers’ money. I think that it is a significant accomplishment on the part of New Zealand to be elected to the Security Council not only on the first vote but also with so many votes to spare. The reason why the support that New Zealand received was so significant is that we are seen to be a fair-minded country that will stand up for the rights of people all round the world. We set out an agenda and said that we would go and talk about those issues and we received that significant support.I know that every member of this House bar a few supports Mr McCully in his work and is certainly very proud that New Zealand has been recognised and has received the votes of so many countries of the world. I know that inside this Chamber is a political place but listening to some of the speeches during this part of the debate it would lead one to believe that not all of the support that should be backing New Zealand is as obvious and apparent as it might or should be from members of the Opposition. I put that down to the politics of the situation. I know that David Shearer is a very big supporter of New Zealand’s place on the United Nations and he is a man for whom I have a lot of respect—a lot of respect for Mr Shearer. Indeed he spoke about customs and his concern about the very high churn of officials in the Customs Service. I was of a mind not to believe him but then I realised actually that he has a lot of experience in this area. Nowhere else across the Government or within this Parliament has there been more churn than with Mr Shearer and all of those other Labour Party leaders who have rotated through that seat over the past 6 years.Mr Shearer said that he was supportive of Mr McCully but then he offered some words of wisdom about what he should actually be doing over there. This is the same Mr Shearer who jumped on a plane to go and support Mr McCully just after I think the election last year and who was the very first person to put out a press release following the vote congratulating Mr McCully—not congratulating New Zealand or the Government but saying that he had been able to do some important work in the day that he had been there that had helped to deliver this victory for New Zealand. That was Mr Shearer. Putting that aside actually I know that his heart is in the right place and that he is one of the few members on that side of the Chamber who are actually willing to put what is important for New Zealand first even when it comes to—and this is my second intervention when I want to talk more about trade—being supportive of high-quality trade agreements. I know that when many of his colleagues vote against the Trans-Pacific Partnership he will be conflicted. I would not mind betting that we will see him on this side of the House.We have taken on the UN Security Council presidency at the moment and Mr McCully with our representatives there is representing New Zealand extremely well. There are two other parts that I want to speak about in this report. The first is our relationship with the ASEAN countries. In 2015 there will be the 40th anniversary of New Zealand’s diplomatic relations with ASEAN and that is quite some achievement. In fact we have very important relationships with all of those countries. Indeed New Zealand will host 31 celebratory events across 10 Asian capitals with representatives from these countries to celebrate that relationship and the important trading relationships that we have with them. But it goes so much further than that—many of those ASEAN countries supported us towards the UN.A final bit here is about Niue and our relationship with it—the smallest country in the world and a very special relationship for New Zealand. Mr McCully has championed our relationship and has ensured that we give the right type of support to Niue and in particular since 2010 a lot of effort between the Governments has gone into the promotion of tourism.