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

to improve the international competitiveness of Australian businesses. We are pursuing opportunities to negotiate better conditions for Australian exporters through APEC bilaterally and by other means. We are investing $14 billion in Australia’s rail network through Auslink.

We are also experiencing the worst drought on record, and this is naturally affecting rural exports. Despite this, rural exports rose by six per cent to $26 billion in 2006. It is also interesting to note that education services exports—that is, our intake of international students—rose by 12 per cent in 2006 to be worth $10.7 billion to the Australian economy. It is Australia’s fourth largest export, and one that Labor has been quite happy to criticise. The member for Hotham seems to have a manic focus on volume numbers. Volume numbers really have very little significance here. The value of our exports is what matters. Volume numbers do not measure the value of exports to the Australian economy. Our exports, in dollar terms, have doubled since 1996. This is despite the 1997 Asian financial crisis. (Time expired)

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