Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:623;Page:18449] 
2.  
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister for Trade Negotiations 
: When he said “I don’t want to see New Zealand workers competing against Asian workers through their wages” did he mean he intends to protect them against unfair competition; if not why not? 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister for Trade Negotiations) 
: 
 I meant that the Government’s policy is to grow a high-wage economy where New Zealanders successfully compete by adding more value not by accepting lower wages. There is protection under anti-dumping and other trade protection rules from unfair practices. 
Rod Donald 
: Does he think that a Government that requires New Zealand businesses such as Interlock and Fisher and Paykel to pay decent wages provide safe working conditions and meet reasonable environmental standards also has a responsibility to protect those businesses from foreign manufacturers who pay their workers less than the cost of living and make them work in sweatshop conditions? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: New Zealand has never been more open to international competition. We have never had so many jobs in our economy and we have never enjoyed higher standards of living. I can assure members that the best is still to come. 
Tim Barnett 
: What action is the Government taking to ensure a positive future for New Zealand workers? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The Government is committed to ensuring that we have a high-value high-wage economy. Rather than making cheap underwear clothing manufacturers are producing high-value fashion wear. The Government takes an active role in our economy to ensure our citizens are working on high-value products for high wages. We also take the needs of important sectors such as manufacturing into consideration when negotiating trade agreements. 
Peter Brown 
: Is the Minister aware that whole industries have disappeared because of the reduced cost of Asian workers—the shipping industry for one—and if he does recognise that would he recommend that the Government give consideration to instigating favourable tax regimes for any industry that makes a commitment to employing New Zealanders and is compelled to compete against industries that employ low-paid overseas workers and if he will not do that what will he do? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The Government is committed to achieving full employment at high wages and it is well down the path to achieving that. The member apparently advocates that the Government should choose favourites among New Zealand industry by offering them particular tax preferences. I tell the member that we do better by allowing our companies to compete; the most productive and innovative rise to the top in that way. 
Sue Kedgley 
: How will the Prime Minister’s objective of getting more women into the paid workforce be met when thousands of skilled women in the clothing industry will lose their jobs as a direct result of the Labour Government’s free-trade agenda? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The truth is that the clothing textile and footwear industries are booming. I quote the chairman of the Kapiti Horowhenua Apparel and Textile Industry Cluster Group who said recently that Horowhenua’s textile industry is booming. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: How does the Minister expect a New Zealand business that pays accident compensation levies all sorts of other governmental charges and in some measure for free health and education systems in a high-tax regime to compete with a Chinese company that does no such thing and that pays 18 people with what it costs a New Zealand business to pay one worker in this country as was the case with businesses in Tauranga that recently closed and relocated to China; and what are those lions of democracy—the Progressive Party and the Green Party—telling him about that? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The first part of the question can be answered. The Minister can comment on the second part but of course he is not responsible for those parties’ policies. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I allowed the question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I get it but I think you have misunderstood what I said. I asked what those lions of democracy—the Progressive Party and the Green Party—are telling the Minister about that and he is responsible for that. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister can answer that part. 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I am aware that the right honourable member sat in a coalition Government that did nothing to support New Zealand industry and workers and I assure him— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister is not responsible for a former Government and he is particularly wrong about that—the first thing we did was to lower the minimum wage—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think the member had better quit while he is behind. But he is right—I now want the Minister to come to the question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am glad that that will be my one mistake for 2005 so I tell members to watch out. My real point is that the Minister is not responsible and he is totally erroneous—we raised the minimum wage. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have ruled in favour of the member. I ask the Minister to answer the question. 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The member is making another mistake in suggesting that he can improve New Zealand welfare by slashing accident compensation protection for New Zealand workers as the coalition Government of which he was a member attempted to do. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I made no such comment about slashing accident compensation. I was making a comparison between New Zealand companies having to pay for accident compensation and their Chinese equivalents not having to do such a thing. The Minister is right off the mark and he is outside the Standing Orders because he is off the mark. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: On this occasion I agree with the member. I would now like the Minister just to address the particular issue that was asked by the member in his question. I will not restate the question; if the member wants to restate it I will allow him to. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: My question is simply this: how does the Minister expect a New Zealand company which pays for a largely free health and education system and for accident compensation in a high-tax regime to compete with a Chinese company that pays 18 workers with the equivalent of the wage in New Zealand for one employee; what is his answer to that? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I expect New Zealand companies to compete by having highly trained skilled employees and by making sure that they are innovative well equipped and able to compete on the basis of high levels of productivity. 
Hon Matt Robson 
: Does the Minister have any progressive examples of active management to aid sectors facing overseas competition? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: Yes I have somewhere to hand something about that. Just yesterday my colleague Jim Anderton announced further funding of $1.125 million over the next 2 years to the textile carpet footwear and apparel sector to fund research projects to help it to adapt to competition. That is in addition to the $2.3 million it received in last year’s Budget—money that seems to have been well spent. The textile carpet footwear and apparel sector has gone from being a low-value sunset sector fearing for its future to being one that is growing positive and reporting to the media that its difficulties have been largely overcome. 
Keith Locke 
: How can the prospects for the clothing industry and for manufacturing in general be as rosy as the Minister has just painted when the president of the Council of Trade Unions Ross Wilson is adamant that a free-trade agreement with China will put at risk thousands of manufacturing jobs and the future of the whole manufacturing sector; can the Minister explain that difference he has with the president? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I simply do not agree with that prediction by Ross Wilson but it is not unusual for Governments to be subjected to exaggerated position-taking by interested parties when they are negotiating trade agreements. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: [ 
Interruption 
] This is not a rescue one—ah no it is not. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Let me tell the House that the next member who makes an interjection while a question is being asked will leave the Chamber—and that is a promise. Everyone is entitled to ask his or her question in silence. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Is it correct that it is pretty hard to pick winners but that it sure beats deliberately picking losers as implied by the Greens’ and New Zealand First’s questions? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: Yes I can confirm that. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: How has the Minister got the gall as a member of the labour organisation of this country to stand up in this Parliament knowing that he and his leader are wantonly going out there and selling out the interests of hard-working New Zealand unionists? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I can only repeat what I advised the member earlier. New Zealand has never had so many jobs and never enjoyed such high standards of living for its workforce. 
Rod Donald 
: What analysis if any has the Minister done on how New Zealand’s trade will be affected when global oil prices continue to rise and supplies start to run down; and does he not think that New Zealand’s position at the very end of the supply chain means that he needs to temper his free-trade zealotry with some strategic thinking? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I can assure the member that trade liberalisation minimises the costs to consumers and producers all over the world and that New Zealand can compete on the basis of its comparative and competitive advantages despite being a long way from many of our markets. 
Rod Donald 
: Will the Minister personally help the 200 workers who are about to lose their jobs at the Interlock factory to find new jobs in the growing economy given that he recently said in the  
Otago Daily Times 
 that a free-trade agreement with China will lead to “more better paying jobs and a better quality of life for New Zealanders”? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: My task in this business is to facilitate opportunities for New Zealand companies to grow in order to generate higher-paying jobs in more productive workplaces. 
Rod Donald 
: How can Kiwis participate in Labour’s ownership society if they have just lost their job in an elaborately transformed manufacturing business such as Interlock or Fisher and Paykel because the Government has failed to protect the business where they work from unfair competition? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: In fact the Government through the law does protect companies from unfair competition. But it is the nature of economic progress that there is change and lower-paid less productive jobs give way to higher-skilled better paying jobs.