Hayes John: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Hayes John: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:17489] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 It is really interesting that people can find clouds even on a sunny day. I am interested in the comments made in the Chamber earlier this afternoon by Gareth Hughes a Green member and by Keith Locke who has just resumed his seat. The issues in the Middle East are a water shortage which goes right across North Africa and down through the Middle East as well as poverty decades of injustice mass unemployment and rapid population growth. Those things all put pressure on food prices which underpin the instability in this part of the world. The Middle East is hyper-arid the underground water resources are disappearing the population will double to 600 million in the next 40 years and climate change will result in increased temperatures so we are dealing in that part of the world with political dynamite. 
I say good on the Minister of Foreign Affairs for opening embassies in Kabul and Abu Dhabi because he is in touch with reality. The issue is water. Abu Dhabi has been developing underground storage tanks to store 26 million cubic metres of desalinated water. That will represent a 90-day reserve. The UN estimates that in this country we could sustain a population of about 48 million based on the amount of water that falls in this country. The Arab countries are as sensitive to water as Australia is to floods. This is the paradox: although the Arab countries depend on increasing oil prices those increases in turn will cause increasing food prices. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
JOHN HAYES 
: Prior to the dinner break I was talking about the paradox that applies in the Middle East whereby the countries there want to increase the price they get for their oil but as they do that they are pushing up the price of the food that they need to import. 
We are here to address the financial review of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I pay a particular compliment to the Minister for focusing the ministry on backing John Key’s undertaking to lift our exports from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP. We are doing that by consolidating trade agreements—for example with China. In the financial year under review we secured a trade agreement with Hong Kong; initiated dialogue with the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries with a view to establishing a trade agreement there; and entered into negotiations with India Russia and Korea because those countries are our future. 
The ministry has performed very well under the Minister’s leadership. For example if we think about the ministry’s response to the tsunamis in Samoa and Tonga and though not in the financial year under review to recent events in Japan we realise the ministry has performed exceedingly well. This work within the ministry is being done under the Minister’s leadership. He is looking at how to improve the efficiency of the department. The Minister has engaged with the private sector and taken advice from the export sector on how we can do more to support the activities of New Zealand businesses and exporters. At the same time the ministry has brought together and reabsorbed the NZAID agency which spends $500 million a year back into the ministry securing efficiency gains there in its administration. 
The ministry has also performed very well in other areas of its work. It has preserved the International Whaling Commission and supported it as the sole agency representing the interests of whales and of people who support the longevity of whales on this planet. The ministry is also engaged in things like the agricultural research partnership looking at how to engage other countries to address the issues of greenhouse gas emissions from our livestock in this country. Tim Groser has done a particularly fine job there in bringing a range of countries into a research partnership that involves not only New Zealand but also a lot of other countries and their money. 
Report noted.