Bob Edlin: The FTA with India......

The FTA with India: Chippy chides the Govt for not inviting Labour to come dancing much earlier

What’s all this about?

That was the question we mused on, here at PoO, on spotting the headline

India FTA: Hipkins says National came to Labour far too late as visa questions mount

Hmm. Has Chippy thrown a hissy fit?

That suspicion was fortified by the opening paragraph:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has stepped up his criticism of the free trade agreement with India, saying National came to Labour far too late given it knew it would need its support.

There was nothing in those words to tell us if Hipkins supported the free trade agreement – or not.

It did tell us he is piqued that the Nats took too long to ask for Labour’s support.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Trade Minister Todd McClay announced the agreement three days before Christmas. They made a great hullabaloo about the several industries that should benefit.

But because our dairy industry is not among them and because of concerns about immigration issues, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is opposing the deal.

Legislation must be passed in Parliament to give effect to the FTA.

And as The Post explained:

McClay needs Labour or the Greens’ support for the deal to pass, as NZ First have exercised its “agree to disagree” power over the deal – which leader Winston Peters says gives India too much on immigration without enough access for New Zealand exporters.

Hipkins’ remarks suggest Labour will not be providing that support, not because it believes the FTA is a bad deal but because National should have come to them sooner.

Yet, as we also learn from The Post:

Labour have been making supportive noises about the deal, with Hipkins telling media in January Labour was “broadly supportive of securing a trade agreement with India” and that it had faith in the negotiators.

He even suggested the party could agree on the matter that day two weeks ago – but following a caucus meeting said there were still issues to iron out.

But dammit – the Nats should have been wooing him much sooner:

Hipkins was more sharply critical of the deal on Tuesday morning, saying it was “irresponsible” of the Government to not involve Labour earlier on in the deal-making process given McClay must have known NZ First would not support it.

“We are trying very hard to find an adult way forward that puts New Zealand’s best interests first. I don’t think the Government have behaved that way. Going into trade negotiations, knowing you do not have majority support, and making no effort whatsoever to secure that, is irresponsible.”

Hipkins is troubled – it seems – by the same issue which bugs New Zealand First:

He specifically queried the ability for future governments to make immigration changes in the country’s interest.

“I think maintaining New Zealand’s flexibility around our immigration settings, so that we can act in the best interests of New Zealand is something that is important to us. Having said that the Government have now signed us up to this which potentially does restrict our ability to change the rules in New Zealand’s best interests, should that be needed in the future.”

An RNZ report tells us Labour is getting closer to confirming support for the India Free Trade agreement.

But it says the full text has raised more questions that need answering.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins on Tuesday said the party expected to write to the prime minister by the end of the week setting out conditions for Labour’s support.

“Just got to do a little bit of wordsmithing on that,” he said. “We clearly have some concerns about the potential exploitation of migrant workers, where we think the government is not doing enough, and we’re going to set out things that we want to see the government doing in that area. And I’ll set the rest of it out in due course.”

Oh – and this report, too, mentioned Hipkins’ urge to be consulted:

“The government will need to do something that they have not yet done, which is that they’ll need to sit down and have a conversation with us rather than saying ‘this is the agreement that we have signed, you should just support it’.”

And:

“They could have spoken to us through these negotiations so that we would have been fully familiar with what it is that they were signing us up to. They chose not to do that.”

Trade Minister Todd McClay was asked if he regretted not approaching Labour earlier, given he knew NZ First’s stance.

“We have absolutely no regrets at all in doing a trade deal with one of the most populous countries of the world, and probably the best trade deal that India has done with anybody so far. It more than levels the playing field for Kiwi exporters,” McClay said.

It’s a pity the PM missed the chance to bring Hipkins onside a few months ago, when the two party leaders teamed up for display of ‘dad dancing’ at Indian Independence Day celebrations in Auckland.

Indian singer Shibani Kashyap invited Luxon onstage at the Due Drop Events Centre to dance with her at the event on Saturday night.

Luxon decided to make it a non-partisan party by inviting Hipkins onstage.

Stuff reported:

After receiving praise from their host for their “affable” relationship and with the instruction to be “free-spirited” with their dance, the music started and the pair showed off their differing dance styles.

At that stage of the FTA negotiations, he would not have appreciated he would be falling out of step with a coalition partner when the legislation had to be waltzed through Parliament.

Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.