Smith Stuart; Mallard TrevorSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): That is quite all right—I answer to most things. Ha! I have to confess that I am a very new member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee so I was not present during the hearings but I have read the reports and I have found them to be very interesting reading. I would like to first of all relate back to the defence white paper. There is a lot of discussion in the white paper about hardware machinery and some IT upgrades and so on. But I think one of the key things to our defence force is the capability of the people themselves. I saw that first-hand in Kaikōura in response to the earthquake and I have to say the sense of order that they brought to what was quite a chaotic situation was really very heartening. To see how well these people operate under pressure I think is the hallmark of a good armed force.I would like to go back to the paper itself. The $20 billion that is in the capability plan that is identified within that white paper I think is something that we as a country must take very very seriously. We do not have an unlimited ability to pay in these areas. If we do not make long-term plans as has been the case with this white paper in an attempt to keep putting white papers out and having a structured manner going forward we will end up making expensive mistakes as have been made in the past when purchasing very expensive military items. Sometimes we end up with what can in fact turn out to be orphans in terms of military hardware which cost a lot of money to maintain and can run out of their economic life very quickly and put a country with a limited ability to pay in quite a bit of difficulty.I want to talk about Dr Brook Barrington who appeared before the committee—and there were a number of things covered there. I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has a reputation of having the best of the best in the Public Service and I think quite rightly so. I know from my own experience as an exporter in foreign markets of seeing those people operating in the market their capability and their service that they give to New Zealand exporters is second to none. We are a very small trading nation so we have to do what we do extremely well. That requires a well-funded foreign affairs department. It requires good people in the market and we have that with those people. I think that is really very very key to our trading future.Also in the role that I held with New Zealand Winegrowers we dealt with free-trade agreements and preparing for that. I note in this paper that there was quite a bit of discussion about the proposed EU free-trade agreement and I am sure that at the moment there will have been a lot of work going on in the background by MFAT people looking at what it is that is possible to be involved in a free-trade agreement—agricultural products is quite clearly pointed out in this paper. The political reality is in the report at least that the sensitivity around agricultural products as part of a free-trade agreement is very high. It is going to be quite difficult to deal with that but the key is that MFAT has the right people actually going around the various industries at the moment and finding out what exactly happens there what is possible and what the barriers are to dealing with trade because when it comes to the negotiations if they are not well informed they will undoubtedly lead to an agreement that would not be of very high quality and not of much use to us.So I am very confident that we have the capability to do that and I am sure there is a lot of work that has gone on already in behind the scenes. I applaud the PACER-Plus agreement and that is referred to in this report as well. I think that the development part of that agreement is key and I think that to actually stand beside our Pacific neighbours is really a very important thing. We are a small country; they are even smaller countries and it is incumbent on us I think to deal with that.I just want to quickly refer to a New Zealand First statement about National Party members—[Bell rung]—moving over there. I think it raises the IQ of both parties if National Party people leave and join New Zealand First.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Can I just warn the member now. When he is indulged with some extra time he should not abuse that indulgence.Reports noted.