{"id":531083,"date":"2026-07-17T18:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/531083\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T18:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:44:10","slug":"the-india-new-zealand-fta-nz-first-and-the-election-year-rift-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/531083\/","title":{"rendered":"The India-New Zealand FTA, NZ First and the election-year rift \u2013 Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a clear winner for New Zealand, but that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t questions. New Zealanders need clarity around the points of contention and, despite the deal\u2019s huge benefits, an understanding of what its costs may be.<\/p>\n

The FTA has had strident critics, including, most prominently, one of the National Party\u2019s coalition partners, New Zealand First<\/a>, whose leader Winston Peters has called it \u201ca bad deal for New Zealand\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the clearest policy divisions within the National-NZ First-Act coalition, at a time the trio will need to show unity to see off the left bloc\u2019s challenge at this year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

NZ First\u2019s criticisms primarily focus on the agreement\u2019s immigration settings and investment clause.<\/p>\n

That investment provision, which refers to a US$20b ($34b) investment goal over 15 years, has also been targeted by the Labour Party, whose leader Chris Hipkins warned exporters could have their market access revoked if New Zealand can\u2019t fulfil its commitment.<\/p>\n

As the Herald reported this week, the Indian side of the argument says this figure is a promise by New Zealand \u2013 but the New Zealand side argues the Government is only obliged to \u201cpromote\u201d investment in India to hopefully reach the goal. After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said three times during his visit to Auckland last weekend the figure was a \u201cfirm commitment\u201d from New Zealand, Peters told the Herald it was \u201cbreathtaking stuff\u201d that Modi could come to New Zealand and there was still confusion.<\/p>\n

McClay reiterated to Jamie Mackay<\/a> on The Country radio show on Wednesday the contested provision\u2019s $US20b was an \u201caspirational target\u201d to promote investment. He said it was \u201cvery clear in the legislation\u201d and New Zealand\u2019s responsibility was to promote, not invest.<\/p>\n

While, on current polling<\/a>, National will need NZ First\u2019s support if it wants a chance of forming the next Government, it doesn\u2019t need it to get the FTA across the line.<\/p>\n

Labour has said it will support the free trade agreement. That in itself speaks volumes about the value of the deal.<\/p>\n

Then former Prime Minister Sir John Key weighed in this week<\/a>, saying anyone opposed to the FTA is a \u201cclown\u201d.<\/p>\n

The descent into name-calling, and it\u2019s clear who the clown barb was aimed at, does risk this becoming something of a circus and will do nothing for the coalition partners\u2019 relationship.<\/p>\n

That said, Key\u2019s arguments in support of the deal are sound. Over time, the importance of a strong relationship with India will become more and more obvious.<\/p>\n

And while NZ First may well be playing to its base ahead of the election, it may also be turning off a sector of the population at the same time.<\/p>\n

The Rotorua Daily Post reported this week that a prominent local politician who had been considering a candidate role with the party backed away after Jones described concerns about migration linked to the FTA using the phrase \u201cbutter chicken tsunami\u201d.<\/p>\n

First-term Bay of Plenty regional councillor Raj Kumar described Jones\u2019 comments as \u201ccheap and low-level propaganda\u201d<\/a> fuelling misconceptions that everyone from India moving to New Zealand was a butter chicken cook or chef.<\/p>\n

Despite Jones\u2019 protestations that he was using hyperbole to get \u201ccut-through\u201d on political debates, the comment, which was widely reported, fell well short of the standards we expect from our representatives.<\/p>\n

Yes, there is debate to be had over a major undertaking like the FTA. Kiwis need to know what it means for us and what the potential ramifications are.<\/p>\n

If that can be achieved without the slings and arrows of outrageous metaphors, all the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a clear winner for New Zealand, but that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t questions. New Zealanders need clarity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,13997,262094,1888,4975,122031,123775,111,43,139,69,3333,38630,223,584,6923,80],"class_list":["post-531083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-editorial","tag-electionyear","tag-first","tag-free","tag-fta","tag-indianew","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-price","tag-rift","tag-the","tag-trade","tag-what","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}