Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on this—the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). I chaired the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for most of the process through hearing the submissions when it was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I want to acknowledge the Hon Todd McClay because there's 6000 pages of text and actually he's the guy that did all the heavy lifting along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and our great trade negotiators in delivering for this country what is an outstanding free-trade agreement. The incoming Government was lucky enough to pick that up and sail in on his coat-tails.I find it very hard in the House to stand here and to listen to the Government speakers get up and criticise the TPP and remind us of how much they stood against it—and they did. Through the select committee process we had the New Zealand First member and the Labour member David Clark the previous speaker make it clear at every single point—they were very clear about the fact that they did not support nor would they support the progression of the TPP. They would not support the Government.The reality of it is that this Government would not be passing CPTPP in this House if they did not have the support of the National Party. This Government does not have the numbers. It would not have the mandate as a coalition Government to be able to pass this legislation through this House and to enact the CPTPP. You needed the National Party—Hon Ruth Dyson: No the Assistant Speaker does not need the National Party. She sure does not.Hon MARK MITCHELL: OK so I'm just hearing from a Government member stating in the House—do you not need the National Party to pass this legislation?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order!Hon Ruth Dyson: No I didn't say that. That's not what I said at all.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Does the Government not need the National Party to pass this legislation?Hon Ruth Dyson: Try being a bit more accurate.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Pardon?Hon Ruth Dyson: Clean your ears out.Hon Gerry Brownlee: No Ruth said They're on their own. They're on their own." The Greens have rolled over.Hon MARK MITCHELL: They're on their own? They don't need us? They don't need us. OK. We'll have to have a chat about that in caucus. But the reality is this: I sat on that committee and I want to acknowledge the Hon Todd McClay because actually through the country there was quite a bit of concern initially around the agreement. When he became Minister he embarked on a dedicated programme of public meetings. And he was supported by his officials and by our trade negotiators. They went around the country and they ran a huge public education programme where they did public meetings for people to come along and they could discuss the concerns and issues that they had. And over time we slowly saw a massive reduction in the amount of negative emails that the committee may receive submitters that were a lot more comfortable and understood exactly what the TPP was all about. And actually there was a huge change in the way that the country viewed this free-trade agreement because fundamentally as a small trading nation down the bottom of the world these high-quality free-trade agreements are extremely important for us.And the previous speaker David Clark was talking about a drop in GDP and chucking all these numbers out there. Let me give you some numbers and these numbers were given to us by our officials on the committee and they were very clear. They said "Countries that we have high-quality free-trade agreements with our annual trade increases by about 10 percent; the countries that we don't have free-trade agreements with it's quite the reverse—they decline by about 10 percent." So it was very very clear—the message that was being given to the committee was that high-quality free-trade agreements are good for the country. We need them.My own caucus would ask me and say "Where is this going to land? Surely New Zealand First has seen the benefit in this trade agreement. Surely they're going to get behind it." And I'd have to tell them no. They're low-level flies. They're not interested. They're going to continue to take a position against the free-trade agreement. There's going to be no movement on it. What about Labour? The Hon Phil Goff—when he was in Government—put together a free-trade agreement with China. And I want to acknowledge him and the work that he did on that. And actually that proved to be an extremely important free-trade agreement for us. When there was a global recession that free-trade agreement was a big part of being able to hold up and carry our economy through those big challenges and those issues.So we thought that Labour might actually start to see the light they might start to come around as well. No they didn't. They continued to take a strong position against the TPP. They come into Government—what happens? Overnight poor old Professor Jane Kelsey—Professor Jane Kelsey who's an expert. She lectures at university. We had a—Hon Aupito William Sio: She's not old!Hon Gerry Brownlee: Expert in what?Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well she's meant to be an expert in free-trade agreements. Did I say "old"? Well I'll retract that. Poor Professor Jane Kelsey. She'd come along to the committee. She was against it she was against the TPP and she'd come along to our select committee. She was very respectful in the way she made her submissions. In fact I even held a meeting in my office for her with the other members of the select committee and the Labour members they were all over her. They were making her cucumber sandwiches and making her a cup of tea—God they couldn't do enough for her. They'd escort her into the select committee room and make sure that she was comfortable—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Pōwhiri?Hon MARK MITCHELL: The whole lot. The whole kit and caboodle. And then all of a sudden they go into Government Professor Jane Kelsey comes out against the CPTPP and it's all over. She's dropped like a hot coal. They don't want to know. There's no more cups of tea there's no more cucumber sandwiches. All of a sudden they don't want to know and they don't want to listen. They don't want to listen to Professor Jane Kelsey. What happened? What changed? It was because she still had some major issues around the CPTPP. I'm not saying I agree with those but I just think it was a bit rough how in Opposition—Hon Member: She was used.Hon MARK MITCHELL: She was used. That's a very good way of putting it. So that was a very very interesting change in position by the Government on coming in. The Government has not negotiated a single change to the market access provisions to the markets of the other members of the CPTPP. They were envisaged when it was in the TPP or the Trans-Pacific Partnership 11 so there's been no fundamental change to this agreement. You'll hear people get up and say "Oh there's been changes to foreign buyers." They can't give us one example. We asked the Rt Hon Winston Peters "Give us an example." There was no example. He was more passionate about David Bennett in referring to him—Hon Gerry Brownlee: That's a long-time romance!Hon MARK MITCHELL: You're right. That's true. Ha!The Government is naturally defensive because they spent so much time telling the public the TPP was a bad free-trade agreement. I'll come back to the size of the TPP: 6000 pages. How many pages do you think they needed to capture the minor changes?Hon Gerry Brownlee: Two.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Two pages. Two pages of changes.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Well they were just suspensions.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well they were suspensions and actually one of those pages was something that we'd already done that we'd already put in place. So really let's call it one page. Of a 6000-page document there was one page of changes so whoever the next speaker is I'd invite them to get to their feet and to run us through the one page of changes so the House can understand exactly what the changes were.I'm going to finish now and I'm going to come back to my original point. The reason why we're supporting the agreement is because from day one we are a free-trade party. We believe in it we understand that it's important for us as a nation. It's important for us to continue to engage in trade with the rest of the world. Without good free-trade agreements without the ability for our companies to be able to do that without the ability for us to get our products and services into the global market then we would have massive problems. Our standard of living would begin to drop. We wouldn't have the money that we'd need to invest into our health system our education system our infrastructure. So we've always been big supporters of free-trade agreements and that is why the Labour Government—the Labour-led Government or this coalition Government—is fortunate that the National Party will make a decision not a political decision. We could create a massive political blow to the Government if we chose to. We'll be driven by a decision that's right for the country that's right for our nation and that is why we will support the CPTPP and that is the only reason why. That's the only reason why this Government is going to be able to pass this legislation. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker."