Locke Keith: Tariff (New Zealand - Thailand Closer Economic Partnership) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Locke Keith: Tariff (New Zealand - Thailand Closer Economic Partnership) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21419] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party has an amendment under this part to clause 2 to extend the date when this legislation will come into force from July 2005 to July 2010. I think that the Government may actually support this amendment and I will just explain why that is—and the National Party members will be interested in this. Clearly there is a bit of a misunderstanding in the National Party ranks about the Treaty of Waitangi and our commitment as a nation to it and about the need for clauses in agreements and legislation referring to the Treaty of Waitangi. The National Party has referred to the article that allows more favourable treatment of Maori in respect of matters covered by this agreement—that is article 15.8 in the original treaty. In view of the misunderstanding in National’s ranks if we extend the implementation date out for 5 years and the National Party members have a bit more education and perhaps talk to a few Maori by July 2010 they may understand things a bit better and there may be more agreement in the Committee on this bill. It may also be the case that if we extend the start date out to 2010 members on the Labour side of the Chamber may think a bit more about the implications of this bill in the meantime and think that perhaps they should not go ahead with its basic provisions. 
An extension to the implementation date would also give a little more time for New Zealand industries Thai industries and the agricultural industries to adapt. I talked earlier on about the danger to the Thais in terms of their dairy industry. Perhaps in 5 years Thailand could with New Zealand’s assistance make its dairy industry a bit more efficient and there could be a win-win situation whereby our dairy products would not then undermine the Thai industry but would be on top of Thailand’s dairy industry and put dairy products into a richer society. Thailand would have grown a bit richer in those 5 years we would be selling more dairy products and everyone would be happy. We would not then get that rebellion from Thai farmers. So extending the start date could help us there. 
Also it may help in terms of the evolution of the international debate on free-trade agreements like this and of people coming to understand the strengths and weaknesses in such agreements and understanding what should be put in and what should not. At the moment this sort of blanket free-trade agreement does undermine certain sectors in both the countries involved. It actually hurts particularly the poor people in both countries. In this agreement the poor people in Thailand are affected because they are kept in poor conditions with low wage rates. We are not helping them at all because we are not putting clauses into this agreement that will help to protect them. The working people in New Zealand—those in the clothing industry in particular—will also be subject to unfair competition because of the much lower wages in Thailand. 
Lockwood Smith has been asking how the Treaty of Waitangi clause will affect trade with Thailand. I think you have to look a bit beyond this bill because he is talking about the agreement— 
Simon Power 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I am sorry to interrupt the member but I believe he was bringing you into the debate Madam Chairperson and was not pulled up for it. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: I am sorry; I apologise if I did that. I do not recall doing so. I was saying that if Lockwood Smith looks at article 15.8 in the original treaty he will see it may apply not just to the tariffs that are contained in this bill but also to the investment provision and also potentially to any subsequent agreement on services. That could relate very directly to Maori in terms of some of their educational institutes and the special relationships we have in terms of fishing agreements land agreements and things like that. There may be special provision for Maori—and rightfully so in terms of settling past grievances—that means in terms of the competitive situation we would not allow full competition from non-Maori institutions in New Zealand.