John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I say it is about 25. I quote:

... it was always the intention of the Coalition to seek extra funds from Cabinet should the scheme, which is demand-driven, become oversubscribed.

It is marvellous how revisionism takes place after an election. It is easy to be this disingenuous when you are no longer in government. Quite frankly, I am not going to allow this from the member for Groom, despite the fact he is a friend of mine. He is a political opponent and he is wrong. The previous government, in my view, was never a friend of the EMDG Scheme, nor was it ever a friend of Austrade. It would not have expanded the criteria for the scheme if it did not commit to the funding. It is a nonsense, after the election, to start engaging in this revisionism. The previous coalition always knew that its changes two years ago would leave exporters short-changed this year. They knew this. How did they know this? In a newspaper recently the shadow minister and the Leader of the Nationals said they were hammering the previous government to put more funds into the scheme.

The previous government always knew more funds were needed. Two of its senior ministers have admitted this, yet the Howard government never delivered. The calls for more funding to meet the shortfall fell on deaf ears. With respect, the shadow minister’s excuses are dishonest and disingenuous. Unlike the former government, we will fund the changes that we make to the scheme. The changes in this bill will be worth more than the paper they are written on. The EMDG Scheme will have a $50 million increase in funding in 2009-10 and, unlike the previous government’s amendments, we will actually back our amendments with money. Those on the other side would do well to take note of this salient fact.

I would love to stay and listen to the next speaker, who knows a lot about trade. Sadly, I have to rush to get a plane, because I have to be in Japan tomorrow. I wish you well. I will read your contribution in Hansard tomorrow in Yokohama, because I might want to reply. Cheers.

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