Smith Lockwood: General Debates 
Smith Lockwood: General Debates 
[Volume:617;Page:12857] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 That member who has just resumed his seat is New Zealand’s Minister of Defence and all New Zealanders have reason to feel very concerned at that. The last occasion on which New Zealand military forces were deployed was in our part of the world in the Solomons which is a country where New Zealand has a serious responsibility for maintaining security regardless of what anyone else does. That Minister well knows that the way he and the Prime Minister dilly-dallied and mucked around over whether New Zealand would commit an infantry company to the Solomons became so bad that the Prime Minister of Australia was on the verge of saying: “Stuff them we’ll put another company into the Solomons ourselves.” New Zealand under Labour is becoming so unreliable that it cannot be relied on even to take its responsible place in the Pacific. That is what Labour has done to our defence standing in this part of the world where we have a responsibility. 
Just yesterday the Government of Australia announced a $338 million subsidy for its wine producers. It is being done by way of a tax rebate that works out at $290000 per wine producer. National wants to know what this smart alec Government has done about that. Has it just bent over and kowtowed to the Australians? What has this smart alec Government done? Under Closer Economic Relations the Australians would at least have had to consult New Zealand before implementing that policy. We have heard nothing on this issue from the Minister for Trade Negotiations Jim Sutton nothing from Phil Goff the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and nothing from the Prime Minister. It is an issue that will cost New Zealand’s wine-growing industry hugely. Every bottle of wine it sells in our third-biggest export market Australia will be up against a subsidised Australian product. 
The question is this: did Australia consult with this Labour Government before announcing that subsidy? If not that speaks volumes about the relationship between the Labour Government of New Zealand and the Government of Australia. If Australia did consult New Zealand which it is meant to do on matters affecting business opportunities in both countries then it obviously took no notice of what our Labour Government said unless Jim Sutton said Australia could go ahead and do it. Obviously Australia took no notice of New Zealand. Either way it shows how damaged New Zealand’s relationship is with Australia that the Government of Australia would take this action and screw New Zealand’s wine industry without even turning a hair. 
This announcement follows hard on the heels of what we saw last year when Australia chose to negotiate a trade agreement with the United States of America without New Zealand being there. We are Australia’s Closer Economic Relations partner and also its Anzac partner but that country told us it did not want us there. The latest estimate of that trade deal is not now $4 billion as previously estimated; the latest estimate of the benefit to the Australian economy as at the end of last month is $6 billion. The irony of it all in terms of the relationship between this Labour Government and Australia is that this weekend a leadership forum is to take place here in Wellington. Of course we will hear lots of fine words coming out of that forum but that will not alter the fact that this Labour Government has damaged for all New Zealanders their relationship with Australia.