Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does Winston Peters have a point about the India FTA?

Look, I hate to say it, but it’s starting to sound like Winston Peters was right about that India Free Trade Agreement, and that the Government is not being straight up with us about what’s in the document.

It appears the agreement does stop us from being able to cap the number of Indian students who come here. Now, that’s not the end of the world, given there actually isn’t a cap on them at the moment - or, frankly, on students of any nationality.

The Government also always retains the ability to cap all students by tweaking visa settings.

What this trade agreement prevents them from doing, by the looks of things, is specifically targeting Indian students and putting a cap on them alone.

But the issue is that Indian students have historically been a particularly tricky area, given previous problems with dodgy schemes sending students here without the required level of funds - or with other issues - and they end up becoming our problem to deal with.

Depending on where you sit on this, that might really upset you. You might hate that. Or you might simply see it as the give‑and‑take of free‑trade negotiations - a price we pay to gain access to the huge Indian market we now have.

The trouble is, instead of having that debate, we’re now on track to have a debate about whether the Government is hiding things from voters.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that they are withholding something, judging by the way the Trade Minister ducks and dives when asked about this.

And I don’t know about you, but in an age of online conspiracy theories, declining trust in politicians, and shrinking confidence in institutions, I’m not sure this is a smart strategy for the Government - especially in an election year.

Sure, either way, the Government was going to face a gnarly debate. But surely it’s better to debate whether we should trade uncapped student access for access to the Indian market, rather than debate the Government’s integrity itself.

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