Tabuteau Fletcher: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTabuteau Fletcher: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8863. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker Mallard in this Chinese New Year and greetings to my fellow members in the House today. I have said publicly that there are a few—a very few—good people sitting in those ranks of the Government’s seats over there. It is just a shame—it is a real shame—that none of them is in a position to contribute to the Government’s policy settings. If those few people had been in a position to contribute maybe we would not have this farce that we are calling a flag referendum. Perhaps we might have seen some forward thinking and actual direction applied to our economy. Perhaps if they had been allowed to speak on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) we may have had an actual exchange of ideas—an actual debate—about trade. But no instead there was a complete and utter blackout.Just so that people stop—please—comparing the Trojan Horse that is the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the China free-trade agreement I point out that that document at 121 pages in its main agreement including annexes 1 to 15 totalled about 1000 pages. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement totalling about 6000 pages speaks to me about being a document of control a document of manipulation and corporate protectionism rather than actual free trade. National’s plan—which is working; that has been mentioned so many times today—is really working only for those members because many poor souls saw that spin and said “Oh they’ve got a plan. Oh it’s working. Fantastic!”. The last general election result suggests that that party has fooled just enough of the people. It just got itself just over the line. But the last by-election result suggests that people have woken up to the spin and the manipulation. This National Government literally has no plan other than to clutch to the old-school thinking repeated already so many times this afternoon that if giant corporates are making profits then everyone else must be doing just fine.I say to the Prime Minister that poverty keeps growing by the day and the statistics are an indictment against this Government which keeps talking about a plan. Try to get some detail as to what that plan might be and silence is those members’ reply. More and more households in New Zealand are no longer living from pay day to pay day which we saw as being a terrible indictment back in the day. No that is not bad enough. They are now taking out loans to survive from week to week.I am talking about working families—good hard-working families; good people who want to do well by themselves and their children—who must borrow money and manage greater and greater debt just to get by. They are not servicing debt to invest and multiply their wealth Prime Minister. Rather they are servicing greater debt simply to put food on their tables and pay the rent the doctor’s bill and their children’s education bill which gets bigger by the day. Right now those people are blaming themselves. Soon enough they will realise it is the National Government’s lack of economic foresight dominated by old-school thinking that allows this travesty to exist in the first place and in fact to grow day by day.I spoke last year about the Prime Minister driving the metaphorical bus that is the TPP over a cliff and taking the country with it. Today I say that he has added turbo-chargers to that bus. He races to take us all to the bottom of the international heap—to a low-wage economy where big businesses make ever bigger profits shared out amongst only the top 1 percent. That is this Government’s definition of success. As this Government scrambles to allow for more rules of trade and a disputes process that is available only to international corporates the rest of the country watches as this country’s income inequality gets larger and larger. The only plan I can see from National is to keep the people in the dark about the facts—the fact that this Government is borrowing so so fast just to keep the New Zealand economy standing still.Debt has grown in excess of $100 billion since National became the Government. That is a sinfully scary number. These puppeteers who call themselves prudent money managers literally have no clue as our country’s debt to foreign investors gets bigger and bigger by the second. I say to those members opposite who have spoken today that it is time to actually get a plan a modern plan and it is time to modernise our trade deals. The fact that the Government’s only plan for the economy is to call its ad hoc fairy tale approach to the economy a plan that is working is not enough for more and more New Zealanders especially in our regions.This National Government talks about being aspirational and yet the only solution Minister Joyce presents to this country is more and more foreign direct investment and more and more sales of New Zealand assets. Never mind as that number grows that the profits those companies generate literally keep pouring out of this country. They are not for reinvestment into our country not for the sharing of wealth with New Zealanders not for investment in our schools or investment in our health system but as returns to shareholders in foreign lands—those who care not one whit about New Zealand and its people. I will concede that GDP is going up but that is not the debate any more. It is time to get a clue.Despite its spin this National Government has a problem on its hands and it is a big one. Wealth and income inequality just keep growing in New Zealand. I say to those across this room that the TPP agreement will exacerbate and increase this inequality problem. It will not do as claimed and repeated again and again as part of the spin by those members. It will not help this economy. Many international mainstream economists trade specialists have come out and agreed that this trade deal for New Zealand will lead to between 6000 and 7000 job losses and an increase in income inequality.Minister Woodhouse and Minister Lotu-Iiga mentioned that the tariff removals would see huge gains for New Zealand exporters. They seem to imply that all the forecast gains will come about because of the tariff reduction schedule. Are they aware that the tariff removals represent only 23 percent of the Government’s fairy tale numbers? It assumes that all of the tariff reduction gains as tiny as they are will accrue to New Zealand exporters. I am not sure whether they are aware of how markets work but what is more likely is that the processors and the wholesalers will reap those benefits whilst the supplier of those primary ingredients which is New Zealand will gain little to no reward.I conclude by saying again that New Zealand First supports free trade but the TPP is anything but.Chris Bishop: Oh rubbish!FLETCHER TABUTEAU: I am proud Mr Bishop to be a staunch advocate for New Zealand business. I respect and admire those who create and those who take risks—those who would take New Zealand goods beyond our borders. In so doing they do create jobs and hopefully those profits of New Zealand firms circulate amongst our economy and we share in those gains. This trade deal will not enable any of the lines sold by this Government to the business community. Without doubt I look forward to a robust debate in the House on the TPP. The ability to provide actual real detail to those who have just assumed it will be good for them because this Government has simply said so will I hope enable better decision-making and more questioning engagement from the New Zealand business sector. Perhaps the truth will set us free.