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

I thank the honourable member for her question. I know the importance that she places on improving Australia’s trade performance. The fact is that the global crisis is undermining confidence. One indication of that is that spot prices for most commodities have taken a dramatic drop. This underscores the reason why when coming to office we said that we were going to set about developing a new trade policy that positioned Australia beyond the resources boom. This trade policy recognises the importance of diversification both in content as well as the direction of our trade focus. The other point that I would make is that improving trade performance is another arrow in the quiver of building confidence. The reason for that—

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