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

The opposition never understand when in government the importance of increasing trade performance. They presided over 72 trade deficits in a row and they did that in the middle of a resources boom. Just imagine what it would be like if they were still in charge today. They never had the wit or wisdom to understand the importance of this diversification. Why does trade matter? It matters because world trade grows three times faster than world output. If economies are to secure their economic future, they have to engage in trade. They also have to pursue policies that not only liberalise trade and open markets but do the structural reforms to the economy to make sure that they are competitive enough and productive enough to achieve that outcome.

Recently, we concluded a free trade agreement with the ASEAN group of nations. I have spoken in the House about this before. In the break I had the opportunity to visit both Malaysia and the Philippines. Today, in discussions with the Prime Minister of Vietnam I had the opportunity to engage three of those countries in the new framework that this ASEAN free trade agreement gives us to better diversify and to strengthen our trade between those countries. This is not just off the back of the platform that is the multilateral negotiations but by sensibly driving the bilateral relations to continue to strengthen our position.

We have a great opportunity in the ASEAN region and in Asia as a whole. People have talked before about the IMF report, which does show that world growth is slowing, but growth in Asia is still solid and this is where we do have to engage. We have to engage on a broader front than was hitherto the case. We have to diversify into the services economy because it represents 80 per cent of our GDP but only 23 per cent of our export market. Why is it that the previous government was never able to perform better on the services front in all of its 12 years? The fact is that it had a narrow view as to what trade policy involved. It focused primarily around agriculture, not elaborately transformed manufactures or services. It has been to the detriment of this country and it has taken a Labor government to come back into office to get the balance right. I assure the House that we will do everything possible to ensure that we do get that balance back.

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