Tuwhenuaroa
Natanahira Political reporter
Prime
Minister Christopher Luxon has “charmed” the rural sector at
a summit in Auckland, sharing with them the origin story
behind the Indian free trade deal that is set down for its
first reading in Parliament on Thursday.
Luxon spent
Wednesday morning in Auckland at the Primary Industries New
Zealand Summit and sat down with Federated Farmers president
Wayne Langford for a fireside chat.
His appearance
came the morning after a 1News-Verian poll showed his party
sitting at 29 percent and Labour at 32 percent, marking the
major parties’ lowest
level of combined support since the first MMP election
in 1996.
Speaking to around 560 industry heads,
delegates, scientists and farmers, Luxon said there “was
nothing more important to New Zealand” than the primary
industry.
“You were treated as villains, if I’m really
honest about it, before and as I came through
politics.”
He said the government’s job was to “power
you guys up” and pointed to the industry’s outsized mark on
the country’s economy.
“We provide about 400 million
people with 10 percent of their food. Our agriculture sector
is driving in about 10 percent of our GDP, about 360,000
people employed in it.
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“I want it pumping and I want
it on the front foot, out there in the world, smashing it.
We have the best farmers in the world, we have the most
carbon efficient farmers in the world and there’s a world of
opportunity.”
The prime minister said it was a “bit
chaotic with Trump and everything out there” but there was
still a “massive” growth in exports.
“When you think
about places like the UK, I think we’re up over 42 percent
in two years, EU pretty similar. We’ve now got India up 72
percent of growth in exports – before we’ve even done the
FTA – just because we’re talking positively about
it.”
“I don’t think we just sit back and admire the
opportunity, we put the foot on the accelerator and we go
for it now, because as good as it may be across our core
sectors, there’s still a few like arable and agriculture I
want to see better performing.”
He described the
relationship between the government and the industry as
“adult-adult” not “parent-child”.
“Me, as government,
I can create the conditions for growth, but you go and
create that growth and create those opportunities and build
kick-ass businesses.”
The summit gave Luxon an
opportunity to share the benefits of the government’s India
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with those most likely to benefit
from it. His coalition partner, New Zealand First, have pulled
their support for the deal, citing concerns around
“unfettered immigration” and a recent report by the New
Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) found the it
was unlikely
to deliver an immediate boost to the
economy.
Luxon said he had dinner with Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in Laos, a meeting that “started the
whole relationship, actually, for the FTA.”
“We were
sitting together side by side, and I said ‘Narendra, what’s
going on for you in India?’ He said, ‘Chris, I’ve got 1.5
billion people, I’ve just overtaken China as the most
populous country on earth.’ He’s supposed to be a $12
trillion economy by 2030, but he’ll probably get there in
2028.
“That’s the power of just one economy that’s
actually moving from low income to middle income, and why
you want to grow with growing economies and get New Zealand
as a small country in on that ground floor,” Luxon
said.
Speaking to RNZ, Federated Farmers president
Wayne Langford – who shared the stage with the Luxon – said
there was lots of positivity within the primary sector,
which he credited to Luxon.
“The prime minister’s a
hard-working guy and he often only gets a 10-second
soundbite on the radio or in the media and so to have 20
minutes of really sharing his vision, and particularly the
vision for the primary sector, was fantastic.
“The new
Indian free trade deal was a big part of that for this
government and so it was good to hear his thoughts and the
opportunities that may come with it,” he said.
There
was a similar sentiment from another Federated Farmers
representative, Charlie Reynolds, who told RNZ the prime
minister put on his “usual Luxon charm”.
“He’s leading
the charge with Todd McClay and being offshore a lot,
sitting down with the Indian Prime Minister and securing
that deal, it’s been absolutely fantastic.
“The story
he told on how it all happened, and the wins we’ve had over
Australia, over the EU, of getting into India, it shows the
strength of the diplomatic team and negotiators that we’ve
got in the [Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade] at the
moment.”
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