The presence of all of you at this summit demonstrates the value that each of you puts on the relationship between India and New Zealand.

And my presence, alongside other National MPs and candidates, shows that the National Party also values that relationship. All of us want to see it deepen and improve.

As some of you know, before coming to politics two and a half years ago, I had a career in business, most recently as CEO of Air New Zealand but, before that, at Unilever.

In both those roles I made several visits to India – at Unilever it was to spend time with our business Hindustan Lever, and at Air New Zealand to work with Air India. I love India - from the busyness of the streets and the passion for cricket, to the unbridled enthusiasm for commerce and trade, to the immense talent and potential that I have seen up close and first-hand in the Indian people.

I’ll say more about trade later but let me begin with an overview of where New Zealand is at as a country.

I hope it’s not contentious for me to say at an India-New Zealand summit that, in my view, New Zealand is the best country on planet Earth.

New Zealand has enormous potential and I came to politics because I believe that this country should be more ambitious and, if we make the right decisions, New Zealand will become more prosperous and more confident in the world, and New Zealanders will do better.

I won’t settle for mediocrity, and I don’t believe I’m alone in refusing to succumb to the sense of decay that has come to characterise New Zealand under this Labour government.

But, during the time I’ve been in politics, all over the country, people tell me that they are frustrated and worried.

They are anxious about things they can’t control. That includes offshore troubles like the war in Ukraine and upheaval in the banking world.

It’s also domestic things, especially the worsening economy and the cost-of-living crisis that is harming many households and businesses, especially with the rapid rise in interest rates.

People are seeing that the Labour Government has no ideas and no strategy for the economy except to spend more money – even though it’s rampant government spending that has driven inflation to where it is today.

The Government is now spending $1 billion more each week compared with 2017 when National was in government. That’s an increase of nearly $23,000 per household each year of extra spending.

And the Government is collecting $43 billion more in tax each year - that’s $17,000 more tax per household. That’s partly because inflation has pushed people into higher tax brackets, yet Labour refuses to adjust tax thresholds for inflation. If it did, more people could keep more of what they earn.

But although Labour will inflation adjust benefit levels, will inflation adjust superannuation and will inflation adjust student allowances, it will not help out working New Zealanders by inflation adjusting tax brackets.

A National government that I lead will adjust tax brackets so you will keep more of what you earn.

I have to tell you, it is a very special skill for a government to spend $1 billion extra per week, to hire 14,000 more bureaucrats, and yet deliver worse outcomes.

You wouldn’t do it with your business, but Labour has been doing it for nearly six years with our country.

New Zealand is going in the wrong direction. Not only are we not realising all that endless potential we have; we’re going backwards.

I don’t accept it has to be like this.

I don’t accept that the highest inflation in 32 years and rapidly rising interest rates is the best New Zealand can do.

I don’t accept that 2% of Decile One high school students being able to pass a basic writing test is okay.

I don’t accept that building a giant new health bureaucracy while the worst-ever waiting times in hospital emergency departments are experienced, is the right priority for the Government.

And nor do I accept that violent crime being up by 33%, retail crime up 40%, a 56% increase in gang membership, and a ram-raid every 10 hours is the new normal.

A National government I lead will turn New Zealand around. National will chart a positive course for New Zealand that’s not about Left or Right, but about going forwards instead of backwards.

So, in government, National will have five priorities:

First – National will curb the rising cost of living by addressing the underlying drivers of inflation. Our plan will:

• Give the Reserve Bank just one focus – controlling inflation.
• Stop adding costs on businesses
• Remove bottlenecks that are getting in the way of business growth, like immigration settings being too restrictive
• Provide tax relief
• Bring long-overdue discipline to government spending.

Second – National will lift incomes for all.

The first rung of lifting incomes – especially for those doing it tough – is to move people off welfare and into work.

Businesses are crying out for workers, yet under Labour there are 50,000 more people on a Jobseeker benefit than there were when National left office.

We’ll also lift incomes by enabling businesses to flourish. You know that the more successful businesses are, the better the salaries and opportunities they can offer.

Third – National will provide better health and education services.

You likely heard the plan I announced recently to teach the basics brilliantly in primary and intermediate schools with an hour each of maths, reading and writing on average, every day, and better training for teachers, too.

Fourth – National will deliver resilient infrastructure for the future.

And, fifth, we’ll restore law & order and I know that’s a big concern for many members of New Zealand’s Indian community so I’m going to say a bit more about it.

As National’s Leader, I go all over the country meeting people where they live and where they work.

Hearing business owners talk about their hopes and dreams is one of my favourite parts of my job. There is so much talent and drive in businesses. People have usually sacrificed a great deal to open their shop or café, or to buy a farm, a pub or a tourism operation. Business owners have a huge amount at stake, including the financial security of their own families, and their employees’ families.

People living on their farm or above their shop have a double concern about rising interest rates. Their business’s lending has become dramatically more expensive, and so has their mortgage.

We can talk about these things in financial terms, like someone with a $400,000 mortgage needing to find an additional $300 a week when they re-fix from an interest rate starting with a 2, to an interest rate starting with a 6. But the hidden costs are in the mental and emotional toll on people worried about losing their homes and businesses. That is a very real concern.

Additionally, what I did not anticipate when I came into politics two and a half years ago, was the number of people I would meet whose businesses have been victims of brazen crimes.

I think in particular of the family I met where the couple lived in a one-bedroom flat above their dairy. Their child, aged five, slept on a mattress downstairs behind the shop counter.

One night, at 2am, there was a terrible crash as a car of ram raiders smashed straight through the shop front.

Fortunately, the family were physically unharmed but the mother, the father, and the child will live the rest of their lives with the trauma of that night. It was a night in which people with no respect for other people’s property, and no respect for other people’s hard work and efforts to get ahead, turned that mother, father and child into yet more victims of a crime wave.

New Zealanders have had enough of it. National has had enough of it, and so have I.

Last year, I announced two important law and order policies. One is called Backing Police, Tackling Gangs, because gang offending and gang recruiting is behind a lot of offending. National will give Police extra powers to tackle gangs, and we’ll ban gang patches in public places.

I’ve also announced our policy to combat youth offending. We’ll create Young Offender Military Academies for repeat, serious young offenders. They can be sentenced there for up to 12 months and the academies will provide discipline, mentoring and intensive rehabilitation – and show serious young offenders that under National, there’ll be consequences for their actions.

I care about turning around the lives of young offenders – I’ve met some of them at community programmes that work hard to make the right interventions. But it’s time for a lot more emphasis on upholding the law and standing up for the victims of crime.

There’s a lot more I could say about domestic policy under a National government, but I want to turn now to foreign policy.

New Zealanders are proud of this country’s independent foreign policy and a National government I lead will continue that approach and to uphold New Zealand’s reputation as a good global citizen.

Every country, and particularly a small one like New Zealand, needs friends, alliances and the protection of multi-lateral forums. Fair rules, and avenues for redress if things go wrong, particularly matter to small countries. That’s one reason New Zealand has always been an engaged member of the World Trade Organisation and has worked hard to secure trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership.

New Zealand’s single strongest relationship is with our closest neighbour, Australia. We also belong to the security alliance “Five Eyes”, to the South Pacific Forum and, like India, to the Commonwealth.

I said at the beginning of this speech that I thought New Zealand was the best country in the world.

I was reading a report in The Guardian newspaper the other day that said India is poised to become the world’s most important country, in the medium term. So the relationship between one of the world’s best countries and one of the world’s most important countries, matters to each of them.

The India–New Zealand relationship certainly is important to me and to the National Party and we’ll put the effort in to strengthen it.

There are around 250,000 people of Indian descent in New Zealand – from all walks of life. Some have been here for many years. Others have just come recently.

Speaking of populations, some are suggesting that India has just become the world’s most populous nation, with 1.4 billion people, perhaps just pipping China with roughly the same population. Both are a far cry from our 5 million people.

Nevertheless, the Indian community is important to New Zealand, and Hindi is the fifth most commonly spoken language here.

It’s a generalisation, of course, but the community of Indian New Zealanders are hard-working, self-reliant, and share many of the values of the National Party – reward for achievement, competitive enterprise, the importance of education, and taking personal responsibility seriously.

In addition to the permanent community of Indian New Zealanders, whether their origin is India, Fiji or elsewhere, there’s a movement of skilled people between India and New Zealand.

A significant number of young Indians come to New Zealand on student visas. India is New Zealand’s second-largest source of international students with 15,000 students here before the pandemic. India is also our ninth-largest source of visitors.

A National government would welcome more foreign direct investment to grow New Zealand companies and give them access to capital and expertise that many cannot find here. India is also wanting more investment, particularly in its technology and high-skills sectors.

The range of ways our two countries could co-operate in our mutual interest, is wide. For example, further development of opportunities for skilled workers, other employment linkages and tourism growth between New Zealand and India, are important to me and will be to a future National government.

So, National’s view is that there’s a great deal more that could be done of mutual benefit, if both countries put their minds to it.

That brings me to trade, because trade underpins the standard of living of every New Zealander.

Trade is largely how New Zealand earns its income so trade – and the underpinning rules-based international order that I mentioned, is vital to us. When New Zealand doesn’t pay its way in the world – which is happening right now - we borrow more and lose economic momentum. That means simple but costly changes, like a weaker currency. A weaker currency can’t buy as much, won’t travel as far and doesn’t fill up the car like a stronger currency does.

And increasingly New Zealand is not paying its way. It gives me no pleasure to note that the IMF thinks New Zealand right now has the worst current account deficit among the OECD.

S&P recently said that New Zealand could experience a credit rating downgrade if we keep loading more foreign buying on the national credit card. There should be alarm bells going off, but I’ve seen no urgency and no focus from the Government on this important task.

There are two ways through the problem the country finds itself in.

One is accepting that we can’t do better and won’t do better.

In that world, we accept we’re poorer, continue to shun the potential of the productive sectors of our economy, and watch as living standards for most Kiwi families continue to slip.

I’ll call that the Labour Party approach.

I don’t accept that’s good enough. I don’t accept New Zealand’s only path is mediocrity and managed decline.

The alternative is to start making our own luck and growing our own wealth again. We can do it, if New Zealand is led by a government that embraces challenge, enters new markets, creates new opportunities, unshackles farmers, growers, exporters and manufacturers, and says we have to start paying our way in the world again.

I’ll call that the National approach.

A government I lead will be absolutely committed to delivering a productive, entrepreneurial economy – where we pay our way in the world, bring the cost of living back under control, and lift incomes for all.

The opportunities for trade in the 21st Century are incredible.

In just the last year, India’s economy grew by $560 billion – an amount larger than the whole New Zealand economy. By 2030, which is not far away, India will be the 3rd largest economy in the world.

That offers a massive opportunity for New Zealand – with the weight of global economic gravity shifting from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific.

But we’re not making the most of it.

Two-way trade with India has declined since 2017 – from $2.8 billion to $2.3 billion – despite India’s economy growing significantly over that period.

While the New Zealand Government has a policy called “India–New Zealand 2025: Investing in the Relationship”, it could invest a lot more.

It was deeply disappointing to hear Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta say at a press conference last year with the Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar, that an FTA with India was no longer a priority.

This sends a poor signal. It says New Zealand will no longer fight for the benefits that open trade delivers and it says to India that we don’t think you’re important enough to put the effort in.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Doing a trade deal with India won’t be easy. No trade deals ever are easy. But Australia has achieved one with India, the UK is about to achieve one, and the EU is closing in on negotiations.

I will not have New Zealand be left behind.

Kiwi exporters are at a disadvantage with New Zealand wine, wool, kiwifruit and lamb all facing trade barriers in India that have been slashed for their Australian competitors. It’s no surprise that we can’t pay our way in the world when we can’t affordably get our products to market.

Therefore, I’m pleased to announce to you today that under a National government I lead, reaching a trade agreement with India will be a major strategic priority.

Opportunities abound, not only in opening new markets for our exporters and entrepreneurs, but opening up new connections, investment and partnerships between our two countries.

There is a perception that India is an economy of the future, but incredible innovation is already happening in places including Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. It’s critical that New Zealand harnesses those opportunities.

Both countries produce talented graduates in fields like IT and engineering and we have so much to learn from each other.

But I don’t think we’re making the most of the opportunities that India, and other countries offer.

New Zealand is an isolated, island nation. That used to mean that we worked creatively and super-hard to make ourselves known in the world. But since the pandemic began, and led by the Labour Government that so embraced isolation, New Zealand seems to have developed an insular and inward-looking mindset that mirrors its geographical isolation.

That worries me. New Zealand needs to get its mojo back. A government I lead will greet the world with purpose and confidence, sure that we can compete and being active in pursuing the opportunities to do so.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for being here and for taking part in the sessions today on building a closer relationship, education, immigration and law & order.

These are all important in the relationship between India and New Zealand, and important for the Indian Kiwi community here. But most important of all are the links between people.

Those of you who live here, but have close family in India, or Fiji, or elsewhere, have bonds that stretch across oceans, and across generations. You are at the heart, and you are the heart, of the India-NZ relationship. Thank you for sharing your love of New Zealand with friends and family in India, Fiji, and elsewhere.

First generation migrants often find the move difficult, but their children who go to New Zealand schools, quickly walk in two worlds, with confidence in both. The number who do that is growing, and that bodes well for the growth in the links and friendship between our two wonderful countries.

A National government I lead will foster that relationship and do our best to add to it with a free trade agreement and with business, cultural and sporting contacts that build on old links, and create new ones.

Thank you all for being here and sharing that vision.

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