McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Trade): It has been a difficult couple of weeks for New Zealand and New Zealanders with the passing of two men who brought great enjoyment to so many—Murray Ball and John Clarke. I would like to recognise that for many of us when we were young we grew up hearing their stories and learning much more about what it was like to have the life of New Zealanders in our rural areas.We also have people in Edgecumbe who are facing very difficult times following weather events and flooding there. They know that this House stands behind them and beside them just as the Government is doing everything that we can to support them. At the same time as that we now see that there is more bad weather coming to the Bay of Plenty and we have a Bay of Plenty - wide emergency having been declared. I hear from home being Rotorua that at the moment the lakes are very high and the streams equally are high but it is a strong resilient community; we are all very very well prepared.It is a sad day for the House because yesterday in a speech we heard that we are losing one of our own. David Cunliffe has decided after many years of hard service that he too like so many New Zealanders has given up on the Labour Party. As I look through the many leaders that it has had—Goff: he is gone.Iain Lees-Galloway: Like John Key gave up on the National Party right?Hon TODD McCLAY: Shearer: he is gone. Cunliffe is gone and Little is pretty much gone. Largely if we look deeper we have got Jacinda Ardern and that previous speech was one of the best speeches I have heard from a member of this House reminiscent of somebody who is more popular than their leader. Largely the members doth protest too much about their current leader the highlight of whose career was being listened to by thousands of New Zealanders last week in the dock. That may well happen again.This country is in very good shape in terms of the economy the positiveness of New Zealanders and the leadership that we have shown. I hear members opposite talk about the former Prime Minister John Key. You can hear a very large degree of envy in their voices because they wish that Phil Goff David Shearer and Cunliffe could have stayed oh just for a little bit longer through all of those 8 years. The reason the Government is in such good shape and the country is in such good shape is fundamentally economic management.Dr David Clark: 9 long years.Hon TODD McCLAY: We have had 9 long years of a Government that is focused on the things that are important to New Zealanders 9 long years of the Government being re-elected and 9 long years of that member talking about 9 long years. But really when you go out and talk to the public they are not looking at how long that period has been. They are focused on what is important: that there are more jobs today than there have been in 9 long years more people employed and in work today than there were over 9 long years and so much more opportunity for the country.A couple of weeks ago the Prime Minister launched New Zealand's trade strategy a refresh of the direction New Zealand will take when it comes to the importance of trade over the next 10 to 15 years. Called Trade Agenda 2030: Securing our place in the world it is an ambitious target of what the Government wants to achieve. I want to thank all members of this House who have played a part over the last period of time in the importance of trade. It sets out an ambitious target of 90 percent of New Zealand's goods trade being covered by free-trade agreements by 2030 up from 53 percent today. If successive New Zealand Governments will not be ambitious on behalf of New Zealand and New Zealand exporters then nobody will because nobody owes us anything in the world.A very important part of achieving this is focusing on non-tariff barriers issues that businesses raise all of the time. We have applied $90 million of new money to target this to achieve much more. We have announced that we will establish an all-of-Government approach to dealing with non-tariff barriers today and going into the future. As part of that we have announced a clearing house for non-tariff barriers. This will mean that those who have difficulty and challenges with them will be able to approach the Government through a portal and it will be the Government's job through our agencies to deal with those to make sure the right people are looking after the challenge to respond within a 48-hour period and then to focus on the things that are important for New Zealand businesses. We are establishing a flying squad to make sure when something happens somewhere in the world that has the possibility of having an impact upon New Zealand exporters as far as non-tariff barriers are concerned that the funding is there with the people who are experienced to go out and deal with that very quickly.The final bit of this is recognising that exports are not just about the parts of the economy they have been before—a focus on digital services on investment and on services themselves. Again I welcome the support we have received.