Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Hansard source

Was the Deputy Prime Minister going to increase the number of exporters by 25 per cent. No. By 50 per cent? No. Could it have been by 75 per cent? No. The Deputy Prime Minister said, I think it was four years ago, that he was going to double the number of exporting firms in Australia. How has that one gone since then? How is it going? According to the ABS data in 2004, there were 43,452 exporting firms. In 2005 that went down to 40,797 exporting firms. They are going south rather than north, according to the ABS data on that year on year. I would be interested to see the rest of strategy that you propose to unfold.

Whether it is in export numbers across rural, mining or services manufacturing, whether it is your performance on the whole question of the USFTA and what that has delivered additionally to Australian exporters or whether it is in boosting the numbers of exporting firms, the pattern is the same. Deputy Prime Minister, you should not just consider leaving the portfolio. The national interest demands right now, on the back of the AWB and on the back of everything else, that you leave politics altogether. You stand condemned.

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