Tremain Chris: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — Second Reading 
Tremain Chris: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill — Second Reading 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I will pick up from where my colleague Jacqui Dean left off in terms of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Bill. My colleague Jacqui Dean has a strong background in business and I know that her electorate down in the south will benefit extremely strongly from the bill. I will start with a point that Jacqui made which was about New Zealand exports and the key benefits from this bill. The benefits are encapsulated in the statement that there will be no tariffs—that is zero tariffs—on 99 percent of New Zealand’s current exports to four key markets within 12 years by 2020. Those four key markets are Indonesia Malaysia the Philippines and Viet Nam. 
I will put that statement into the context of what impact that will have on real businesses out there in the New Zealand community. I will talk about a couple of instances that I have experienced in the last couple of days. The first one was when I had the fortunate opportunity to be invited up to the Tauranga electorate Simon Bridges’ territory and to a number of businesses in his community. We specifically asked to talk to businesses involved in the export community that are driving New Zealand’s growth and that will benefit from the bill.  
One of the key guys we first met was from Oasis Engineering. Oasis Engineering is a wonderful business in Tauranga that is developing valve technology for the compressed natural gas (CNG) industry. It is quite a specialised business but it is looking for opportunities to put its technology into garages and petrol stations all around the globe. It is quite phenomenal what Oasis is doing and the investment it is making into its product in order to stay 18 months ahead of the world with its product. Oasis takes out patents but the interesting thing is that on a global scale taking out a patent is a pretty difficult thing to fight for from down here in New Zealand. But this company is out there doing amazing things. About 70 percent of its market is now exports. It believes there is a huge industry in CNG. In fact many of the Asian markets including the ones we are talking about with this ASEAN bill will have benefits for Oasis. That is absolutely fantastic. Taking the tariffs off its exports to those countries means that it can compete on an even keel. With the technology that this particular business provides it is absolutely wonderful. This bill will help Oasis Engineering incredibly.  
Another business we went to in Tauranga was a company called Trimax Mowing Systems. What a wonderful company. When I stand here and listen to Opposition members talking about employers and how terrible they are to employees I think they should go right now to see this business. Its export market which is the majority of its market has gone through the floor. It would be easy for that business to be sitting there saying that it will have to cut the workforce because these are tough times. But what is Trimax doing? It has its guys on ladders painting the roof doing all the cleaning and getting the factory shipshape so that once the export market starts to grow again it will be in good shape. It has the skills it is looking after its employees and it is making sure that when the market picks up again it is ready for business. That is absolutely fantastic. It is a great company. Although its bigger markets are in America and the UK it too will potentially benefit significantly from the bill. It is absolutely wonderful.  
I will highlight another thing that happened in the House last night. I had the absolute pleasure of hosting in Parliament The Icehouse group. It was able to bring along to Parliament a number of key exporters that are doing absolutely awesome things in the New Zealand market. It is absolutely amazing. I am talking about the Sutton Group. I am talking about two amazing gentlemen from a couple of companies from my own electorate of Napier and from Hawke’s Bay: Robert Darroch from Future Products Group and Hamish Whyte from Furnware. I will talk about Robert Darroch. In 1990 he started out with one other man in his operation. Future Products Group now has 150 employees. It exports products all around the globe. It specialises in the fit-outs of supermarkets garages and BP petrol stations. It is an amazing business dealing with international brands like IKEA. It is a fantastic example. The company is now a $50 million company and is keen to grow further.  
This shows how important groups like The Icehouse are in helping people in business like Robert Darroch from Future Products Group and Hamish Whyte from Furnware. These groups encourage and engender the passion in those businesses to get out of places like Hawke’s Bay and give them the confidence to go up to Auckland to go north of the Bombay Hills to first start taking on markets there then to put their toe in the ocean and into Australia and then up into Asia. These guys are absolutely wonderful. Companies like Furnware and Future Products Group are the future of New Zealand. They are doing a wonderful job.  
This ASEAN agreement will help firms like Future Products Group Furnware Trimax and Oasis. They are the businesses that will improve our balance of payments grow this nation take us forward and grow us out of this recession. I am really pleased to have been able to be involved with those companies in the last week. This bill will help take those companies forward and will help take New Zealand forward. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.