John Key MP

National Party Leader

19 March 2007

1515 Embargo

Speech to

NZ-Europe Business Council Seminar

University of Auckland

Your Excellency, the Honourable Anand Satyanand, Madam Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ambassadors of the Member states of the European Union and Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Consular and Trade Representatives, my Parliamentary colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I would like to congratulate the German Presidency of the European Union, the Delegation of the European Commission to New Zealand, the NZ-Europe Business Council, the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and the European Union Centres Network for arranging this seminar and inviting me to share in this celebration of European integration.

In the 50 years that have passed since the Treaty of Rome, we have seen a great coming-together of the peoples and institutions of Europe.

Today I want to make some reflections on Europe and New Zealand. But first an observation.

From little things, big things grow. Never has this been truer than in Europe.

The institutional origins of European integration were modest to say the least. The architects of European unity looked forward to an era of peace and prosperity on the Continent. Their first achievement, though, was to form an organisation in the early 1950s called the European Coal and Steel Community. The very name of this organisation speaks of grim, post-war industrial times. It sounds intensely unexciting.

It did lay the foundation, however, for the European Economic Community which was created in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome. This initial European club comprised France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Over the 50 extraordinary years since 1957, however, this club has grown and grown, in size as well as in scope. The EEC has become the European Union, encompassing almost all of Western Europe and now significant chunks of Eastern Europe. It started with six nations; it now comprises 27 and no-one seriously expects its growth to stop there.

The EU today embraces many aspects of European policy, including, remarkably, a currency union. The EU is a significant force in world politics and the Euro is a significant force in the world’s financial markets.

This development has not been an even, uniform process. There is no real historical precedent. Amazingly, the script has been written by Europe as it progresses.

It continues to be written.

I understand that the vast expansion of membership is putting strain on internal decision-making procedures. Maybe the successful passage of the new EU constitution would have eased that, maybe not.

But in any event, the European show goes on. The history of European integration suggests that a mix of pragmatism and experimentation will evolve to solve the problems of many members and a crowded agenda.

What has European integration got to do with New Zealand?

The fact is that events in Europe often reverberate here in New Zealand.

It is sobering to remember that 18,000 Kiwi soldiers were killed in the First World War; 12,000 in the Second. These wars had their roots in European rivalry, chiefly between France and Germany. Preventing another war in Europe, getting Europe pulling together rather than pulling apart, was the driving force behind European integration. A stable and united Europe has markedly lessened the risk of New Zealand being involved in another major conflict.

For much of the last century our dealings with Continental Europe seemed to be chiefly on the battlefields of France, Flanders and Italy. In the last part of the century, however, our dealings with Europe have been mostly over trade, and agricultural trade in particular. This could also frequently be described as a battle.

I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that 1973, the year Britain joined the EEC, was one of the important turning points in New Zealand’s economic and social history.

When I was growing up, recent history was divided into before-1973 and after-1973. As a country we were smarting from the decision by Britain to join the Community, to adopt the Common Agriculture Policy, and therefore to put an end to 40 years of privileged access to the British market. At the time, Britain was New Zealand’s main export market, taking three-quarters of our exported lamb and butter, and two-thirds of our cheese.

Nineteen seventy-three was also the year of the first oil shock, and a three-fold rise in the price of oil. This double whammy shook the New Zealand economy to the core. It heralded rising inflation, rising unemployment and rising government debt.

The fact was the New Zealand economy was not equipped to compete internationally.

Initially, the government tried to paper over this by intervening even more strongly in the economy, subsidising sheep, beef and dairy production, and ultimately imposing a wage and price freeze. Like King Canute, the government tried to deny market forces. Eventually, however, these forces provoked huge adjustments in the way our economy was organised.

The economic reforms which began in 1984 have made our economy much stronger, although it took until 1993 to show any signs of this recovery. The agricultural sector in particular has been re-energised, despite – or more likely because of – losing all direct financial support from the government.

Our agricultural export markets have diversified hugely since 1973, with our leading markets now being the US, Australia and Japan. Within the EU, our leading market is still the UK, although we have significant trade with a lot of other countries, including Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Russia and Denmark.

EU decisions, particularly with regard to the Common Agriculture Policy, continue to have implications for New Zealand. While we welcome our increased trade with the EU, it is no secret at all that we would like to see barriers to further trade reduced, and ultimately removed.

I recognise that farming has a special place in the European psyche. Preserving the rural way of life and the rural environment is important to Europe’s heritage – as we, for example, value the preservation of old buildings.

I do think, however, that attitudes on the Continent are changing, albeit slowly. The EU has realised that it is not possible to exempt agriculture from trade liberalisation. The point now being debated is not whether to free up trade in agricultural products, but how far and how fast to go.

There must also be concern in Europe about how the entry of new EU members – some of which have large tracts of agricultural land – affects the sustainability of the hugely expensive Common Agriculture Policy.

So we await developments in Europe with great interest.

I want to take this opportunity, however, to say something a little more intangible about Europe’s influence on New Zealand.

As Europe has been on a 50-year journey, so has New Zealand. Our directions have been different, however.

In Europe there has been a blurring of national boundaries. In New Zealand we have been asserting more clearly our own sense of independent nationhood and national identity.

Fifty years ago, New Zealand was a much "whiter", much more European country than it is today. The demographics show this clearly. In the 1956 Census, 92% of people in New Zealand identified solely as European. In the 2006 Census that proportion had dropped to 70%.

In 1956, 87% of immigrants to New Zealand were from either Europe or Australia. Now they make up only half of all immigrants.

We have far, far more Pacific New Zealanders, and far, far more Asian New Zealanders than we did 50 years ago. In addition, a much greater proportion of the population identify themselves as Maori.

This trend of greater ethnic diversity is set to continue in the future. According to Statistics New Zealand’s medium projections, just under two-thirds of the population will be European by 2021.

These ethnic changes alone have made our country a different sort of place.

But there are two separate issues here. One is that there are a smaller proportion of Europeans in the population, as I have just outlined. The other is that the identification of European New Zealanders with Europe itself has diminished greatly.

Not so long ago, it was commonplace for many New Zealanders to call Britain "home". In some people’s eyes we were a little piece of Europe, transported half-way round the world to where the weather was better for farming. Nowadays, no-one calls Britain home, apart from the odd homesick British immigrant.

I am a case in point. I have European parents. My mother was Austrian and my father was English. I don’t, however, consider myself European. I am proud of my heritage but I don’t look to Austria or England for my cultural references. I am a New Zealander through and through.

As a country there are many things we should thank Europe for. Our justice system, our courts, our Parliament, our tradition of political moderation, our market economy, and our system of public administration, all come from Europe.

We have put our own Kiwi slant on some of these, and continue to do so. But there is no denying that most of the key institutions of our country are European in origin. These institutions have served us well and will continue to serve us well.

No foreigner could ever come to our shores and understand who we are as New Zealanders without reference to our European antecedents. In the same way, I should add that they also could not understand who we are without reference to our Maori or Pacific antecedents.

Europe therefore has an enduring influence on New Zealand society.

We are, however, developing a unique New Zealand identity.

We have to be careful just what this means. It is not the same as having a more ethnically diverse population. Nor is it the same as the mythical "great big melting pot", which according to the song, turns out "coffee coloured people by the score".

It is more like having a shared understanding of a common culture, a unifying sense of what New Zealand is, and a pride in it, that we can all identify with, regardless of our individual backgrounds.

I’m impressed by the fact that young boys, who are surely the most attuned to what is and isn’t cool, will walk down the street wearing Huffer T-shirts, proudly advertising their New Zealand-ness, or celebrating the existence of Tokoroa.

Some of the kids wearing those T-shirts will wear them on a marae; others will wear them to the Otara market, to their weekly Tamil lessons or Greek classes at the local Orthodox church.

New Zealanders will now hang tapa cloths on their walls, even if they are not Samoan. They don’t feel they have to be Pacific Islanders or Maori to identify with the cultural symbols of these groups, and to feel that some of these are indigenous to us all. The All Blacks sing the national anthem in Maori first, before they sing it in English.

New Zealand history books – like Michael King’s History of New Zealand – are now best-sellers.

Large numbers of New Zealanders of all ages, and all ethnic groups, turn up at dawn to attend Anzac Day parades.

There has been a flourishing of New Zealand food and wine festivals. On the other hand, if you want to cook a laksa or a Thai green curry, the ingredients are probably on sale at the local supermarket.

These are just examples of course.

I said before that the script of European integration is being written as it goes along. The same is true of New Zealand’s script. In particular, it is not my job, it is not the Prime Minister’s job, and it is not the government’s job, to write it. Government decisions may influence our sense of national identity, but they may also just reflect it.

While there are still many issues to work through, I think we as New Zealanders are more comfortable in our own country than we were.

We will watch with more than a passing interest the way the EU continues to grow and develop. However, we will watch it through a distinctively Kiwi lens – one that may itself change and therefore occasionally alter our perspective of events in Europe.

The maturity of New Zealand as a nation means we will always want to make decisions based on what is best for us, and our region, and our future. Almost inevitably that will mean we will have differences with the EU or with constituent countries.

In general, though, the relationships New Zealand has with Europe are good and strong, and our best interests are served by nurturing them.

Occasions like this are one small but significant way of doing that, and I thank you again for including me in this celebration.

ENDS

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