Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am talking about the bill, and I will get to the point of the bill. We are here debating this bill because of the failure of the government's trade policy agenda. We have the minister pledging on protectionism, yet the failure of the government's trade policy agenda has led us to where we are today.

The first four transcripts on the minister's website were on leadership. I thought: 'This will be interesting. Maybe they are about the need for leadership on antidumping or the need for leadership on trade policy.' Sadly, no, they were not. They were about the ALP leadership.

Before we go to specifics in introducing antidumping legislation, we need a broader, more coherent trade policy. Instead of having to put in measures to protect us from other people's trade policy approaches, we should be on the front foot making sure we are getting the type of access to markets that does not mean that we have to be defensive in how we go about our trade policy. It is all right for us to preach the purity of trade liberalisation, but if our actions do not follow that then, as we have seen today, we will have to take antidumping measures. We have failed to advocate in our trade policy fora—whether they be multilateral, regional or bilateral—the benefits of a proper trade liberalisation approach. That is what has led us to being here today debating this bill. I would hope that the Minister for Trade was consulted on this bill. I would hope that he will now admit that his approach to advancing Australia's trade liberalisation has not worked and that we need to see some action rather than some words. Turning to the bill specifically—

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