Legislation to implement the NZ-India Free Trade Agreement has passed its first reading in Parliament, with Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay describing it as an historic deal.
McClay said the Agreement would reduce or eliminate tariffs on 95% of New Zealand’s exports to India, with 57% becoming tariff-free from day one. He said the FTA secured better access for wine and priority services and would now be considered by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee.
However, NZ First leader Winston Peters claimed the Government had quietly changed immigration settings in ways that targeted Indian citizens, while treating them differently from other free trade agreements. According to Peters, the deal could lead to an “open slather” of more than 20,000 additional Indian migrants once family members and student work rights were taken into account. He also criticised provisions relating to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Paris Climate Agreement and planned New Zealand investment in India.
Peters said officials had warned ministers the proposed changes could harm New Zealand’s reputation as a place to do business and expose Wellington to legal action or retaliation from India. He also alleged officials had suggested not announcing the changes because of concerns about India’s reaction. “We look forward to the Prime Minister, Trade Minister and Immigration Minister clarifying these matters publicly with urgency, so as to avoid any potential trade retaliation, legal action or reputational damage,” Peters said.
The Times of India reported that McClay rejected Peters’ allegations as misinformation, saying NZ First had consistently opposed trade agreements that were in New Zealand’s best interests.
Read more at Winston Peters on X, Beehive.govt.nz and Times of India.
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Peters, calling the new NZ-India trade deal a “disgraceful sellout” is classic Winnie. We are in an election year, so the NZ First leader has dusted off his favorite playbook: bash globalism, rail against immigration, and attack “woke social engineering” to fire up his gullible base. How often do u people need to be fooled????
This FTA will profit wine makers and other corporates but the normie New Zralander will have LESS jobs because of a flood on Indians!!!!!!!!!!!
Look at his actual career. he’s the Foreign Minister! He literally spent the last two years flying to India to smooth over diplomatic relations. Winnie laid the groundwork for this entire relationship. Acting shocked and outraged that Trade ministerTodd McClay actually closed the deal is pretty rich when his own ministry helped build the bridge to get there.
It’s the same story with his anti-globalist stance. Peters loves to slam National AND/OR Labour for selling out Kiwi sovereignty, but he has spent decades acting as the ultimate kingmaker to put those exact parties into power.
And he doesn’t just put them there; he accepts high-ranking cabinet jobs from them. WHAT DO U NOT COMPREHEND???
When he was Deputy Prime Minister in 2018, his government signed and ratified the CPTPP, one of the biggest globalist trade pacts on earth! !!
Then there’s the immigration BS ruse. He’s warning NOW that the India FTA’s visa clauses are going to open the floodgates to mass migration. But remember the 2017 to 2020 Labour-NZ First coalition?? Peters promised to slash net migration to 15,000 a year. Instead, under HIS watch, it skyrocketed to an all-time record of over 90,000, let THAT sink in, you gullible senile nz1 voting fools!
So, why is he doing this now? Pay attention nuckleheads: >>>Because it’s COMPLETELY RISK FREE, …DOH! Chris Shitkins and Labour already confirmed THAT THEJ WILL VOTE WITH NATIONAL globalists to pass the India FTA. Peters knows his FAKE ‘opposition’ won’t actually sink the deal. He gets to sit comfortably inside the Government, enjoy the perks of being power, and simultaneously pretend he’s the lone rebel fighting the establishment.
It’s not a stand on principle. This is just cunning electioneering, pulling again and again and again and again and again the wool over dumb livestock voting cattle. Baaaaah
Yip, his and Jacinda’s opposition to the TPPA evaporated with a new acronym for it.
What bearing does that agreement have on the Pfizer- BioNtech contract, and the related media, health officials and governments silence I wonder?
Winston is the status quo safety net. Now also being joined by Opportunities Party to prop up Labour and National
Zaggy, I totally agree. the Opportunities Party has the worng name: It needs to be called the Opportunistic Party, because it is, IMO, another smokescreen ENABLER of the Status Quo.
I admit we had our hopes up too, that ACT or NZ1 would bring back to the table what had been swiped and sold by Labour and National. Yeah right!
Socialism aka ‘Nice-to-haves’ is sold to the voters in clandestine fashion for decades: “Governments sold[sell] your children for the debt they buy your votes with.”
Calling people gullible nz1 voting fools and dumb livestock voting cattle and shouting online takes away the salient points of your post.
You don’t like Labour, you don’t like National, you really don’t like NZFirst, but you don’t give other options unless you are the anon advocate for NZLoyal. I agree Kelvyn Alps would make a change to this country, but right now voting NZLoyal or TOPS (which the media is pushing hard) will just split the vote and then we will get National/Labour and possibly the mad Greens back in parliament to continue the globalist programme of total destruction of the world to rebuild it in a communist utopia (for thee and me, not for them) but it will be a much worse communist world than the Bolsheviks ever implemented. The Red Terror will look like a walk in the park to what the globalists have planned for us.
I think if NZLoyal ever got anywhere near to a sniff of power Kelvyn would be jailed. That is how the globalist parties work.
So whatever Winston Peters is, or was, I think for this election it is important to get rid of Nat/Lab/Greens and NZFirst is the only party which has a fighting chance of getting the votes mainly because it is familiar and has been around for a long time and Winston Peters is a steady hand.
That is how I see it anyway.
Jayem, I really appreciate your comment, And I do get what you are sayng.
And I stand reprimanded of my wording.
I apologize, but the situation needs to be able to digest hash terms, IMO.
Where Godzone is heading might need hash terms and terminologyto wke up the sheeple.
Okay pal, stop talking and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. If you can’t manage at least that, then what’s the point of you being in government?
The party political system is the problem not the solution.
In a real democracy the citizens of the nation would make the decisions via regular referendums. Given the technology available today there is no reason this could not happen.
tommy, u nailed t
You’re 100% right that the political party system is a massive quagmire, but direct democracy would be an abject S-show too. For one thing, many people (let’s call them normies) how can I put this delicately… … …they dumb. They proved that almost daily in 2020-2021 with their masked up faces, their arms full of vaccine plasters and their Facebook bio’s (right below their preferred pronouns).
Two: we’re heading off the demographic cliff, especially with Luxon’s incoming Indian trade deal that they super duper promise wont be abused in any way. Once whites and Maori are demographically outnumbered no one is going to give a toss about treaties of Waitangi or civil rights acts or municipal bylaws. The masses will happily vote for frankly barbaric things the western world disavowed centuries ago.
Three: the technology, good as it is these days, is still easily manipulated. We’ve seen that with Dominion voting machines, with facebook and google algorithms, with all the unhinged AI that spy on us 24/7. I would trust those electronic referenda about as much as I trust Jacinda Ardern’s love for me and my children.
Call me crazy, but I think we should bring back trial by combat. Put them all in an arena with swords and shields and whoever makes it out gets to be emperor until next year’s Electionmania runs wild Brother!
That’s how Switzerland works but of course, it doesn’t stop them for jailing people for not going along with the woke narrative. The whole Western system is broken and needs replacing. Its become a haven for criminals and tyrants.
Here’s how we do that:
https://nzloyal.com
https://nzloyal.com/commentary-on-the-new-zealand-india-free-trade-agreement/
Absolutely. There is no reason to not be able to record your vote and instantly receive conformation of your vote, whether it is at a voting booth or your home address. After all, many fast food restaurants now work this way already. Sharemarkets prices and listings work like this when one may see at a glance the trading news. I believe the new generation of voters and policy makers have taken the concept of direct democracy and realistic education into consideration.
This is well worth a read: https://sovereign.nz/sovereign-policies/
eagle v.shark / hindu v. muslim …https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/30/umar-khalid-interview-six-years-indian-jail-without-trial-modi-opposition-political-prisoner