Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

Yes. If the member for Barker, who is from the largest wine growing region in Australia, flew north from Santiago, he would spend a long time flying over vineyards. President Clinton, when he visited Chile, spent a fair bit of time looking through the wine areas because they were so impressive. Their wines, particularly their white wines, are world class. On that note, there is an interesting wine the Chileans have—and I would like Australian wineries to think about this, and the member for Barker might be able to mention it to them—called caminera. The caminera wine variety was thought to be lost to mankind because it had been wiped out in Europe through some fungal disease. However, the early Spanish invaders had brought it to South America. It was considered a weed as a wine and it was only ever used as a base mix—a bit like merlot, which I hate. They put that in some good shirazes and cabernets and mess them up. They put caminera into some of their other wines, and caminera is now viewed as one of the best wines in the world—good red wine. You are lucky if you can get hold of it, and of course Crispin made sure we had some good examples of caminera. I have tried to suggest to people like Lamont’s in Western Australia that they might want to do a trial planting of this unique wine that was rediscovered in Chile after 500 years.

The opportunity for tourism is huge in Chile as well. As I said, you start in the north. You might think the Atacama Desert, being so dry, is a place that you just would not want to be, but as you drive across it to the foot of the Andes there is a place called San Pedro de Atacama. When you first get there, you think, ‘My God, what have I arrived at?’—it is all mud adobe huts and it is a real frontier town that you would have seen in a spaghetti western—but it is a sensational place because it is where the Incas settled in their southern drive through South America.

You still see there a lot of historical and cultural artefacts left behind by the Incas and the original inhabitants. There is a fort just outside of San Pedro de Atacama where they held out against the invaders for years and years before they eventually succumbed. You can go into the mountains, and dormant and semidormant volcanos surround the region. So as a tourist destination Chile is quite outstanding.

I have not talked a lot on the detail of the bills—there probably has not been any need to—but I have talked up the fact that Chile is a great destination and a great country for Australia to do business with. It is a democratic country and it has a lot to offer, and we have a lot to offer them. By taking away the impediments that exist in terms of tariffs, there will be a huge increase in trade. Cross-government and cross-industry relationships will also develop from this free trade agreement. I look forward to seeing more of the Chilean people come to Australia and promote their destination, as I am sure they will promote Australia. I endorse this legislation.

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