David Seymour wants New Zealand to spread its risks beyond China and look to build stronger diplomatic and economic relations with India.
The ACT leader made the pitch on Wednesday during a public meeting in the Auckland suburb of Mount Roskill, where the party has fielded Kiwi-Indian Rahul Chopra for General Election 2023.
“I was surprised the other day, or maybe I shouldn’t have been, to see India landing a mission [Chandrayaan-3] on the Moon. We must tap into the huge opportunity that India provides to boost New Zealand’s economy.
“It’s a huge market with an abundance of talent, and the Labour government has not done enough to forge any meaningful relations with India,” Seymour told a full-capacity audience at Mt Roskill War Memorial Hall.
ACT is looking to improve on the five per cent vote share it won in the 2020 elections from this electorate, where one in two voters is of Asian descent.
“The packed turnout at the public meeting just shows the intensity of our campaign in Mount Roskill this time," said Rahul Chopra. "We know we will improve on our earlier performance this year.”
The Kiwi-Indian who arrived in New Zealand in 2004, and worked in Parliamentary Services for nearly 12 years, is up against Labour’s Michael Wood and National’s Carlos Cheung.
ACT volunteers pointed to the more than 250 people at the public meeting to say voters in this traditional Labour stronghold were now keen on hearing fresh ideas.
Seymour pointed out New Zealand’s heavy reliance on China for exports makes it vulnerable, and that trusting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) comes with its set of risks.
“India’s rise tells us we must build stronger relations with the country…we need more sophisticated industries in New Zealand if we were to get our economy in shape.”
The ACT leader is not the only one pitching for better trade relations with India. National leader Chris Luxon has promised to make a trip to India within the first year if he were to become the prime minister.
The Labour Party has jumped on the India bandwagon more recently, closer to the elections, after a rather mellow response the last few years it has been in power.
Foreign minister Nania Mahuta had only last year said a free trade deal with India was not her government’s priority when she met her counterpart S Jaishankar in October 2022.
Indian leader Narendra Modi invited Hipkins to India when they met in Papua New Guinea in May this year, but the Labour leader instead sent Trade Minister Damien O’Connor earlier this month citing his busy schedule.
A few weeks back though Hipkins promised he would lead a prime ministerial trade delegation to India within 100 days if he were to form a government after the October election.
At the public meeting in Mount Roskill this week, Seymour said ACT believes in a result-oriented approach, and that only his party can deliver “real change” resulting in increased engagement with India.
“We’ve observed what the two major parties have achieved in this regard for quite some time now.”
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