Dean Jacqui: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is subject to correctionDean Jacqui: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8876. Text is subject to correction.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and happy New Year to you and to the House. I just want to acknowledge Meka Whaitiri’s loss in November last year. Thank you for sharing that with the House; we do send you our sincere condolences. I know it is a particularly hard time for you and your family.I also want to acknowledge the earlier speaker from the Labour benches Kris Faafoi who stood up for his electorate. I have to say that that is quite a refreshing position to hear from Labour members of Parliament—that they acknowledge the places where they live their electorates and that they stand up for them in this House. Well I am going to do exactly the same thing today in my speech at the commencement of this year. But first of all I want to say what an exciting energised start to the year it has been for this National Government. We came together last week for our 1-day caucus event where we talked about the year to come what each and every one of us hoped and wanted to achieve and what we are excited about achieving for us in this coming year and the years ahead—not just for our own electorates and our own communities but for people throughout New Zealand. I believe we all came away from that 1-day caucus excited we came away united and we came away very excited about the year ahead.I can tell you something that I am particularly excited about this year and that is going to the Wānaka A and P show. That is the showcase in March for rural New Zealand rural Otago and the rural South Island. Everybody who is anybody will make a beeline to Wānaka for the Wānaka show. I will tell you what is so exciting about that. It is that the farmers the rural folk and the small-business people will be talking about what matters to them. They will take the opportunity to talk to me to the other visiting members of Parliament—of which there will be many—and they will take that opportunity to talk about what is exciting to them. And we already know what that is. That is the opportunities that are presented to New Zealand—for rural sector New Zealand small business New Zealand and as a whole—as the result of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I am so excited on behalf of primary producers because they are going to benefit from the opportunities of open markets to around 40 percent of the global economy—increased access to over 800 million consumers. That is increased access when the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is fully implemented.We are an outward-looking country—well we certainly are in the primary production sector. We already enjoy the benefits of the New Zealand - China free-trade agreement. Thank you Phil Goff for initiating and signing that. More laterally we are the beneficiaries of the New Zealand - Korea free-trade agreement. The cherry growers down in Central Otago are enjoying an increased and stellar season in the cherry product but also are enjoying the huge exposure that they now have to Korean markets. That is significant not just for the local economy around Cromwell and Central Otago—the benefits do not just fall to the growers themselves; they also fall to the transport companies and they fall to the whole economy which is growing more robust because of the opportunities that these free-trade agreements are providing to us.As the Hon Craig Foss noted during question time in the House today the most recent statistics in the New Zealand Business Operations Survey show that the number of small businesses and the rural sector engaged in export sales has increased from 14 to 21 percent since 2007. So for the whole time that this Government has been in power more and more small businesses have engaged in export sales. We are truly an outward-looking country and so we should be.In areas such as Southland and Marlborough in places like Hawke’s Bay—and indeed in South Canterbury Central Otago and North Otago which is the area that I proudly call the Waitaki electorate—up to 40 percent of jobs in those regions are in the export sector. You do not need to wonder why there will be so much conversation around the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will provide huge opportunities for businesses in my electorate. You know what? I agree with Helen Clark. I agree with Helen Clark that it would be unthinkable for New Zealand as an export-orientated outward-looking country and as a small trading nation—let us face it we are a small trading nation floating around in the South Pacific. It is “unthinkable” in Helen Clark’s words for us not to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. I absolutely agree with her and I am sure that our Labour colleagues do too.I want to turn specifically to some of the sectors that will be benefiting from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. I am turning to a document from New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and I am sure this is freely available. I just want to pick out some of the highlights and I want to look at some of the outcomes by sector that we will be enjoying as a result of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. This document really highlights only tariff savings and benefits for current trade. It does not take account of the exponential growth in the volume of trade that will come about as a result of the agreement. And how do I know that is going to happen? Because we saw it with the New Zealand - China free-trade agreement and we saw it with the New Zealand - Korea free-trade agreement and other free-trade agreements with places like Taiwan and so forth.So in terms of beef there are big beef producers in the Waitaki electorate. So what is going to happen? The United States which is New Zealand’s largest beef export market will eliminate all tariffs and quotas on New Zealand beef and this is over a period of 5 years which will allow unrestricted duty-free access into that extremely large market. I can imagine that Alliance Pukeuri which has one or two beef chains probably running at the moment; Silver Fern Farms doing exactly the same; and smaller companies such as Lean Meats based in Ōamaru—my home town—will already be seeing the opportunities and the benefits of just that one example of tariff-free access into the United States. That is huge for those sectors in my electorate.I turn now to sheep meat. Again it is exactly the same story. If I think about the sheep farmers in Central Otago: those merino flocks that beautiful merino meat and wool—but we are talking about sheep meat at the moment—and the Corriedale sheep from North Otago and other South Canterbury producers. Those producers will be benefiting hugely from the introduction of tariff-free access into Trans-Pacific Partnership countries’ dairy—right from Clearwaters Organics Dairy. A member from the Green Party asked what this Government is doing about organics. Well I can tell them that we are providing exactly the same conditions of entry into these markets under the Trans-Pacific Partnership—and if you have not tried their yoghurt you really should; it is delicious. Oceania Dairy based out at Glenavy which has made a huge investment into our region will already have an eye on how they can utilise the benefits that are coming about under this new regime.With regard to fruit and vegetables—cherry growers and apple growers for example—all tariffs for apples will be eliminated within 10 years. Growers based in Roxburgh in Millers Flat in Alexandra and indeed all around New Zealand are hugely excited about the opportunities presented by that. Cromwell with its well-known iconic large fruit—there is an apple sculpture up there—and all of those growers will be excited by this opportunity.I go on to wine and it is exactly the same story from the Pasquale and Ostler wineries up in the Waitaki Valley down to Roaring Meg wine Bannockburn Mt Difficulty Wines Felton Road Wooing Tree Vineyard—fabulous producers of very high quality wine. Again there will be tariff reductions. It is the same with forestry. The Waimate firm Laurie Forestry Ltd will already be seeing the opportunities. Wool leather textiles—again those very same companies will be enjoying many many opportunities. I will just finally in my roundabout of my electorate talk about Barker’s of Geraldine. They are a wonderful high-end producer of cooking sauces and they will benefit. The greater Otago region under the leadership of John Key and this country is in very good hands. Thank you.