Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to strongly contest the arguments put in this place today by the member for Hotham in relation to Australia’s trade figures. This is merely an attempt by the Australian Labor Party to find anything negative in Australia’s current economic data. It is a credit to this government that that has been such a difficult task. After all, Australia is in its 16th consecutive year of uninterrupted economic growth. That is the longest period of growth since Federation. This growth has been underpinned by the economic reforms of the past 10 to 15 years and trade liberalisation over the past two decades. So the Australian economy is in a remarkably strong position and the Labor Party, to the government’s credit, struggles to find fault with its performance and management.

Our trade figures are hardly all doom and gloom. Australia achieved its highest ever export revenue of $210 billion in 2006. That is up 16 per cent in one year and more than double the level in 1996, when we came to office. This strong export performance has been driving job creation, boosting incomes in our local communities and increasing the standard of living right across the country. Our exports are sitting at approximately 20 per cent of GDP and one in five Australian jobs is now export related. Of course, this is even higher in regional parts of the country, where 25 per cent of jobs rely on exports. So the government is well aware of the importance of export growth to our continued economic prosperity. Our export volumes grew three per cent in 2006, with growth across all major sectors. Of course there is room to improve our export volumes, and there are various measures that the government has implemented to work towards those ends. We have made commitments in the areas of infrastructure, expanding our skills base and pursuing trade reform.

However, addressing export volumes requires significant investment in infrastructure by the states. Today’s edition of the Sydney Morning Herald contains a report showing that inadequate transport infrastructure is losing us export revenue. It states:

On the nation’s ports, for example, hundreds of millions of dollars in export revenue are being lost as inadequate rail and port systems clog up with cargo.

It is ironic to hear the member for Hotham complaining about falling export volumes while, coast to coast, Labor state governments are failing to provide adequate investment in our ports. If 71 coal ships are waiting at anchor outside Newcastle, as this story in today’s Sydney Morning Herald maintains, then it is the fault of the New South Wales Labor government. Port management systems are a state government responsibility. I am especially aware of the situation in New South Wales, where the state government has chronically neglected transport infrastructure for years. In doing so, it has badly damaged the state economy and hampered the state’s ability to attract business investment. So perhaps the member for Hotham ought to be speaking to his colleagues in state Labor governments around the country and asking them to take more seriously their responsibilities to Australia’s economic capacity. It is fairly simple logic that if there is not enough port capacity for ships to pick up their cargo in a timely fashion then export volumes will be affected. Through its industry statement this government is providing $1.4 billion over 10 years—

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