Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am sure that, generally, members of the House are interested in the prospects of the global economy and actually understand that what happens in the global economy matters to Australians and matters to their jobs. It would seem to me a great pity indeed that there are members in this parliament who do not care less about that.

I have, of course, just returned from the meeting of the G20 in Korea and the meeting of APEC in Japan. These were important events globally and in our region for the future prospects of the Australian economy and for the jobs of Australians. At both meetings, the G20 and APEC, important steps were taken which will matter for Australians as the global economy recovers, even though that recovery is fragile. I was very pleased to see that at the G20, leaders yet again indicated that they would resist a slide into protectionism in what is a difficult period in the global economy—a difficult period for many economies that are experiencing high unemployment rates and sluggish growth and that are going through the painful work of fiscal consolidation. Even in these pressing and difficult circumstances for many economies, leaders were prepared to say that they would hold out against protectionism. Indeed, they went further and said that they wanted to inject a level of ambition into the Doha Round of trade talks and wanted 2011 to be the endgame and to have the Doha Round concluded. I believe this is an important statement from the G20, one that is very much in Australia’s national interest.

I was also pleased to see that the G20 did deliver on the stronger global financial system through the Basel III rules and stronger international financial institutions, most particularly the long-sought reform of the IMF—something that Australia played a big role in designing through co-chairing the working group with South Africa. Leaders also authorised a framework to consolidate global growth—to lift growth in all economies. We understood at the meeting that that would require the hard work of structural reform and it would require the world to address the imbalances in the current global system with some countries saving too much and some countries spending too much.

I was also pleased that this spirit of progress was there in the APEC meeting and in particular that leaders agreed on a free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific—once again a long sought after goal—and that practical work was done with the Trans-Pacific Partnership and that President Obama, who will chair APEC next year in America, indicated that he wanted to see real progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership by the time of that meeting. That is once again a very good development for Australia. We are a great trading nation.

This is quintessentially multilateralism that is part of Labor’s heritage and Labor’s work as we go about our business in the world. We are proud to have been one of the founding nations of APEC. It was a great move by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke. It was a great move by former Prime Minister Keating to lift the meeting to leader level. I was pleased to see that within our region the spirit of free trade and economic liberalism is still very strongly alive and well. This is in Australia’s national interest. Trade means jobs.

See this speech in context