Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): In starting my contribution I would like to acknowledge some of the previous contributors to the debate this afternoon. I would just like to thank Barry Coates for acknowledging New Zealand First and our efforts to bring forward legislation to the House which was defeated by only one vote that sought to remove investor-State dispute settlements from all trade agreements that New Zealand entered into. It was a frustrating moment for me personally as members opposite voted against removing some of the most insidious trade clauses in this country's—and the world's—history of this movement towards so-called trade agreements. I was going to make a comment on Minister Finlayson's contribution but it is like he does not know what is going on in the rest of the world. He seems to have missed the fact that the one country that will determine whether or not we move forward does not want a bar of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I think the Minister missed the fact that both of the presidential candidates in the US do not want to touch this because they know how toxic it is to their vote. They know it is toxic to their vote because middle-income US citizens will be the worst affected by this trade agreement. That is reflective of the situation that will arise here in New Zealand also. We acknowledge as a party that there will be some who benefit from this trade agreement. We completely—completely—disagree with the data that was brought to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee in terms of a supposed independent analysis of this trade agreement. A few will benefit but the ledger will not balance out in favour of New Zealand. In fact it will be quite the opposite. Those in the middle those at the bottom of our economy struggling already will be the worst affected. This Government has overseen an increase in inequality unprecedented in our country's history and it is this very type of international agreement that will further exacerbate it. It will make it worse and New Zealand First stands up to oppose such moves by this Government. I have to say as I move around the country and talk to people I know that New Zealanders are tired. So the family that came to the steps of Parliament today was a bit of motivation for me personally because I am tired of having to stand up again and again in opposition to this supposed trade deal. It is not called a trade deal"—it is a "partnership agreement"—because they do not have the audacity to pretend it is a trade deal any more. So I congratulate the family who made that incredible effort to come up and just highlight yet again not only that this agreement is bad for New Zealanders in the present but that it will in fact be harmful to our future generations. But I was heartened by the contributions from the other side of the House because clearly those members are tired too. They in their deliveries today were quite morose and quite sad in their contributions. I think that it is simply a reluctance and a reticence to stand up and defend the indefensible. It must truly drag them down. I do want to say that I agree with them in a lot of parts but it is more about the fact that we agree—and I quote one of the members from that side of the House—that "We are a small country positioned at the bottom of the world. We have a tiny population and our big opportunities lie when New Zealand companies get those opportunities to access middle-income consumers around the world including in the US." I could not agree more. The problem is that the TPP is absolutely not the vehicle to do this. This is an absolute farce and does not achieve any of the supposedly wondrous—wondrous—numbers. The numbers that the current Minister of Trade has given New Zealanders on the gains from the tariff reductions have bordered on the preposterous. There are no gains for our dairy industry—Hon Members: Yes there are.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: If we acknowledge that there are some it has been eloquently summated that it might be the equivalent of nine dairy farms in New Zealand. It is farcical—absolutely farcical. New Zealand First does want to stand up and insist that we are advocates of trade but we insist with more vehemence that this is not the vehicle with which to achieve it. We oppose this legislation the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Amendment Bill. It is legislation that simply helps this Government to run up the skirts of some of our bigger partners around the world. It is almost infantile in its blatant attempt to side with its overseas friends despite the fact that those friends are not willing to move forward with this agreement. I commend Mr Reti on his contribution because he actually talked about the legislation. I think he may have been the only one who talked in detail on the legislation itself so let me speak to some of the issues that arose in this legislation. There were 10 very different and very distinct pieces of legislation and I have said before—I said it in the first reading and I said it during select committee process—that the omnibus approach to passing these pieces of legislation is flawed in its usage here with this legislation and this process. We have come from an original trade agreement—or partnership agreement I correct myself—that was undertaken mainly in secret. It was moved ahead at a tremendous rate that curtailed much debate that would have been useful and would have informed perhaps more of the agreement. So what I have suggested and what I still suggest is that the opportunity to actually take those individual pieces of legislation to individual select committees affected by those bits of legislation would be a great opportunity to delve deeper into the issues. I think it was Mr Reti who said that the bulk of the legislation that we looked at was not submitted on and I think it was simply because people did not know the breadth and the depth of the legislation that we were having to address. The US is in a position where they are not moving forward. Despite Vietnam's population supporting the TPP—it is the only country where the population does in the main—the Vietnamese Government has said it is not going to move forward. The Canadian Government has never actually come out with a position on the TPP and it is not willing to move forward. The Japanese—I have just read this today as I was waiting for my slot in the House this afternoon—were absolutely adamant in their attempts to move forward to ratify and get the legislation in place but today apparently they have stopped that process and they themselves are not willing to move forward. Those two economies represent more than 85 percent of the GDP of the TPP regions. This TPP agreement will not move forward. In conclusion I once again wish to lodge New Zealand First's opposition to the use of the omnibus bill process. I just want to end on a quote from a former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister: "What is involved is the biggest power wealth and land grab in the history of the world. The benefits do not accrue exclusively to any one country but it is the wealthiest power elites of the half dozen largest industrialised countries who are the principal beneficiaries. The middle class and the poor of all of these countries are the losers.""