Goff serves to Norman

Phil Goff makes short shift of Russel Norman’s scare mongering over the free trade agreement with China:

Comments by Greens co-leader Russel Norman that: “Parliament has no say over this (China Trade) agreement”, is absolutely incorrect, says Trade Minister Phil Goff.

“The China trade agreement cannot come into effect without parliamentary scrutiny and support. Dr Norman should acquaint himself better with New Zealand’s parliamentary system,” Mr Goff said.

“The full agreement and a National Impact Analysis will be tabled in Parliament at the time the Agreement is signed, and will be posted on the Web.

“This process will allow parliamentary and public scrutiny of the agreement, with the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence Committee likely to call for public submissions on it.

“Legislation then has to be introduced for the agreement to be given effect in domestic law, and must be passed by Parliament for that to happen.

That’s a great serving by Goff. Especially where he suggests that Norman, not yet an MP, doesn’t even know how Parliament works.

“It is likely that this legislation will receive overwhelming support in the House, though of course this remains to be tested.

I’d be appalled if National doesn’t support it. The Greens will of course be against – as they seem to be against all trade agreements. What will be very interesting is how NZ First votes. Their previous voting record and rhetoric means they should vote against. But Winston will be aware of how bad it will look for the Foreign Minister to vote against a trade agreement. As his party has no decision making capability excluding him, I suspect he will make them vote for it.

“While I cannot comment on the detail of the agreement while it is still going through final technical discussions and has yet to be submitted to Cabinet for final approval, I can say that the sort of suggestions made by Dr Norman are nonsense.

“Free movement of labour, for example, has never been considered by anyone as part of the negotiation. To even make that suggestion is absurd.

Sounds like a scare-mongering tactic worthy of Winston – beware the hoards moving here to take your job!

“The Greens appear to have already made up their minds to oppose a trade agreement with China, New Zealand’s third largest trading partner and fastest growing export market.

“However, it would be more sensible for them to first examine what the agreement actually involved, which all parties in parliament will soon have the opportunity to do,” Mr Goff said.

I’m going to take a punt and predict that no matter what the details are of it, the Greens will be against it.

This is one area where I am very supportive of the Government – depending of course on the final details.

Russel Norman has responded on Frog Blog.