Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The fact is we were not rolled. That is the simple fact of it. The shadow minister asked me the question. He does not ask about what he has been out in the newspapers arguing for some time, and that is that our negotiating team has been reduced in China. It has not, nor has it been reduced for the Japan FTA or any other FTAs. We have the same number of negotiators, despite the efficiency dividend that we had to introduce to meet the inflationary profligacy that was occasioned by your mad spending. We have the same numbers in the negotiating teams for all of those FTAs. We have not cut any of the staff in Geneva. We take the view that we require the best of our resources, not just an adequacy of them, at all of those levels of negotiation. We have been active not just in Geneva on the WTO, and it has not just been the department that has been particularly active; we as a government have been active. In particular, I have been active but so has our Prime Minister and so have our industry minister, our resources minister and our infrastructure minister—because we understand the importance of political engagement to try and get an outcome here.

It is one thing to put the resources into negotiations but, if you negotiate a dud deal, there is not much advantage for the country. The previous government was in office almost 12 years and was never able to influence in a proactive way an outcome in the WTO. The last WTO agreement that was concluded was under a Labor government, and I hope that we are able to bring home a new agreement, a bookend to the arrangement, bookends framing those 12 years of wasted opportunity of the former government. This was a government that in its 12 years in office had a circumstance in which net exports contributed to economic growth in only two of those 12 years. When Labor were last in office, we had net exports contribute to growth in 10 of the 13 years. Why? Because we had an activist approach to trade policy. We understood the importance of integrating it with industry policy but, most importantly, we understood the importance of investing in infrastructure and in skills. It is through trade that job opportunities and the sustainability of the economy beyond the resources boom will happen.

We were able to do that because we the current government have a whole-of-government approach. The previous government had absolutely no idea—and the shadow minister comes in here and lectures us about what our intentions are! Our intentions are clear. You had the opportunity; you wasted it. We are now going to take that opportunity. We are going to commit the resources. We do not just have a review. We have made a down payment in the review, the $50 million in terms of the EMDG, the reallocation and recalibration of the trade negotiations and bringing back Invest Australia and Global Opportunities under the umbrella of the trade portfolio.

Consideration of proposed expenditure adjourned.

Resources, Energy and Tourism Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $640,806,000

See this speech in context