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

I thank the member for Tangney for his question and I thank him for his campaign to vote 1 for the Liberal Senate team at the election on 5 April. The coalition's foreign policy is designed in part to project and protect Australia's reputation as an open export-oriented market economy. At the heart of our foreign policy is economic diplomacy. Just as the aim of traditional diplomacy was peace, the aim of economic diplomacy is peace and prosperity.

The Australian government is working hard to find new markets for our exporters and is promoting Australia as an attractive place to do business and an attractive place to invest. That is why the Treasurer and the team on this side of the House are putting the government's finances back in order. That is why we are restoring our reputation as good financial managers. That is why we are cutting the unnecessary red tape and regulations imposed by Labor. That is why we are streamlining approvals for projects. That is why we are lifting the dead weight imposed by the carbon tax and the mining tax, which affects our international competitiveness. It is important for Western Australia, as the member knows, because the mining sector is vital to our overall economy—it is worth about $114 billion, it employs about 100,000 Western Australians directly and hundreds of thousands more Western Australians indirectly.

Policy consistency is also vital. From day one the coalition has opposed the mining tax as being bad for Western Australia, bad for the Australian economy and bad for jobs. The Labor Party, in government and in opposition, is all over the shop. The member for Perth, when she was a candidate in 2010, was saddened, apparently, by Labor's failure to promote the mining tax. She said:

I would have loved to have gone out and sold it. But the central command had the view that this was something you're not allowed to talk about and I just think that's crazy.

Well, member for Perth, here is your moment. The member for Perth, the shadow parliamentary secretary for Western Australia, can go out each and every day—

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