Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a very keen interest in Austrade, particularly its work within the South Pacific area. Indeed, earlier today I got to talk about the involvement it has with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, REEEP. I get to see what this organisation has done, in partnership with various organisations within our region, to help Australian businesses set up, particularly in the Pacific region. I congratulate Mr Mark Fogarty, Chair of REEEP, as well as Ms Eva Oberender, the regional coordinator for REEEP in the South Pacific region. I get to see the good work they have done, particularly in Tonga, where they are trying to reduce the country's dependency on imported fossil fuels.

Minister, are you able to give us more detail on the review that is being conducted into Austrade? As I understand it, this is the most significant review that has occurred in the last 20 years. Could the minister advise the House on the new priorities that have been set for Austrade and what this will mean for exporters trying to break into the frontier and emerging markets. Where I live, in the south-west of Sydney, one of the areas of employment is in importing and exporting businesses. I know how much those businesses rely on Austrade to help develop and identify opportunities through market research. Austrade also looks at the construction of business networks within the Pacific region and manufacture throughout the broader Asian region. Particularly my constituents of Vietnamese origin, as well as those from Hong Kong, have taken a very clear view that Austrade has been a very valuable mechanism in being able to help source targeted markets and help with the development of market research, as well as providing some of the necessary underpinning infrastructure that goes to establishing markets in those regions. It is for those reasons that people in my electorate with those types of businesses have a close association with Austrade. On their behalf, I am coming to see the developments that have occurred within Austrade that will further strengthen Austrade's ability to assist Australian businesses as they aspire to enter foreign markets, particularly within our region. Those developments are particularly the frontier markets, as well as emerging markets in other areas.

I mentioned what is occurring with Austrade in partnership with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership and what it means for Tonga, a country that relies, for more than 70 per cent of its energy sources, on overseas petroleum product, while, regrettably, more than 60 per cent of the people of Tonga do not have access to electrical power. However, through the efforts of Austrade and REEEP, I understand that is being addressed significantly. One of the things that Austrade can do quite effectively in our region is help nations such as Tonga to move away from entrenched poverty by giving people to access to power. It is very important for organisations like that to do that—not simply to provide power to the rest of the population but to provide significant things that we take for granted in this country, such as electrical power to schools and portable power to various homes so that people can undertake their study out of school hours.

These are things that we in this country can, thankfully, take for granted, but for many people in Tonga that is a hope beyond hope. They are reliant on organisations such as Austrade developing opportunities for Australian businesses to bring our home sourced technologies to benefit them, to help them to provide electrical power to their nation, reducing the level of poverty and reducing their dependence on the ever-rising fossil fuel market from which they presently must source their energy.

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