Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barker for his question. I congratulate him on his first speech, in which he demonstrated what a passionate advocate he will be for his electorate. I can confirm to him that the Australia-Korea free trade agreement that was announced on Friday is undeniably good news, not only for agricultural producers in his electorate but also across Australia. It is going to help grow our economy, it will provide certainty for investors and it will certainly create an environment for more jobs in Australia. This Korea-Australia free trade agreement will lift key tariffs off key agricultural products. Some Korean tariffs are as high as 300 per cent and we will see a number of them reduced to zero on key agricultural products, particularly beef. Beef producers were estimated to be losing $1.4 billion because the agreement was stalled under Labor. Tariffs also go to zero on wine, wheat, canola oil, seafood, tomatoes, grapes and others.

I point out that the Australian government has now delivered on an election promise to complete this agreement. Within 100 days of coming to office, we have concluded this agreement—something that the Labor Party could never do. We were able to make a pragmatic decision and put aside Labor ideology. We put the interests of the exporters and producers first. I congratulate the Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb, on an outstanding job in concluding a comprehensive, high-quality agreement with our third-largest export partner, our fourth-largest trading partner. It is a quality agreement, not only in agriculture but also in resources and energy and manufacturing. It creates a new market for services. In fact, this is the best free trade agreement that we have concluded in relation to market access for services—an outstanding outcome. It is also reducing investment barriers.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

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