DIANNE YATES (Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee) Link to this
I move, That the House take note of the report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee on the Inquiry into New Zealand's relationship with Latin America. I thank the previous Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for the excellent work it did—particularly my colleague Martin Gallagher—on the inquiry into New Zealand’s relationship with Latin America.
New Zealand has a very, very good relationship with the Latin American countries. I think that can be seen in relation to our trade agreements with Latin America, particularly in Chile’s relationship with firms such as Fonterra, but also in our relationships with countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. I pay particular tribute to Peru, because the Peruvian ambassador is the longest-serving ambassador in New Zealand.
He is a very, very good ambassador, and he and his other ambassadorial colleagues have worked very hard with the New Zealand Government on building up those very good relationships.
The committee did this inquiry—
Hon Mark BurtonAre people leaving? I must not mention people leaving the House, but I am very disappointed that people—[ Interruption]
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKERThank you very much, Mr Speaker.
It is very important that we maintain our trade and political links with the Latin American countries and that we keep those links going. I am rather disappointed that members of the House are not actually riveted at this time of the night on what is a very, very important inquiry done by the previous Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee.
We do seldom get the opportunity to debate such issues, which are extremely important.
I note that the select committee looked at progressing political and diplomatic relations, at the role of Parliament in developing foreign relations, and at the opportunity to institutionalise inter-parliamentary relationships. It looked at regional issues, which are very important, such as Antarctica, whaling, and the southern hemisphere nuclear-free zone. I am very disappointed that some members opposite are not really listening to this, because I know that they have a new policy on nuclear-free zones.
The committee looked at cooperating on global issues, developing further trade and trade agreements, and the implications for New Zealand and the CER agreement with Australia of Latin American participation in the free-trade area for the Americas. It looked at examining the nature, extent, and expansion of education services provided to South America. It looked at the benefits of increased tourism, including opportunities, in particular, for working holidays for young people from Latin American countries. It looked at developing services and agreements. It looked at the investment relationship. It looked at fostering cultural ties, including links between indigenous peoples, and, in the light of the previous bill debated tonight, that issue is extremely important. It looked at the promotion of languages in the region. I think it is important that many of them—apart from Brazil, which of course is Portuguese-speaking—are Spanish-speaking, and, as we know, Spanish is the second-commonest European language spoken in the world. It is very important to keep those links going with the Latin American countries and with young people in particular.
The committee also looked at other matters in terms of strategy. It made a number of recommendations. It recommended that representation in Latin America should be supplemented with other embassies. It talked about making recommendations on economic relations. Recommendations were also made on official development assistance to some countries in Latin America. The committee also looked at further cooperation with universities and, once again, that working holiday relationship, particularly with Peru, Chile, and other countries. The committee also looked at inter-parliamentary relationships. Since then the Government has responded and looked at those recommendations.
Steve ChadwickIt is a busy Government; it got the responses back in time.
The committee looked at the recommendations in terms of the embassies, and looked at the Government keeping those posts under review. We note that the Government has given priority to appointing honorary consuls in some countries, particularly in Cuba and Paraguay.
He has done a very, very fine job.
The responses from the Government have been largely positive and, basically, have endorsed many of the recommendations of the select committee in this regard. This is one of the cases where a select committee has made a very, very important contribution to this House through an inquiry. I also thank the many people who made submissions to that inquiry.