Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Customs Amendment (Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014, commonly called the Japanese free trade agreement. The Prime Minister said on election night back in September 2013 that Australia was 'open for business'—and, boy, we have to be. The challenges that are in front of this government grow daily as we discover the full inheritance left to us by the Labor Party, and one of the things we have to do is increase our trade. I think it was the New Zealand Prime Minister who said, and I paraphrase: 'No-one ever got rich exporting or selling to themselves.' We have to open up new markets.

Since that time, this government and in particular Andrew Robb, the Minister for Trade and Investment, have put in an exemplary performance and delivered on three free trade agreements. This is the detail, but the headline agreements are there. This deal with Japan is historical in that it breaks new ground. We have gone where no other similar country has gone before. Over many, many years, the thing that gridlocked the negotiations between Australia and Japan was access for our agricultural products to the Japanese markets. There are some that Japan chooses to still protect, but it has given no better access to anybody else in the world than it has to Australia in this instance. Written into these agreements is what we could call most favoured nation trading status, which means that, if somebody gets a better deal than us subsequently, we are in a position to claim the same. So full credit goes to Andrew Robb and his team for convincing Japan that trade liberalisation delivers a mutual benefit to both countries.

I want to concentrate on some of the industries within my electorate which stand to benefit greatly from this trade agreement and the other ones. Grey is a major supplier of beef to the world market, particularly from the northern pastoral regions of my electorate. This is what I sometimes call the romantic heart of Australia—up the Birdsville Track, the Oodnadatta Track, the Strzelecki Track or along the Ghan railway. This is where Sir Sidney Kidman pioneered his giant cattle properties. They exist in much the same manner as they did 100 years ago, except that are larger now because fewer people produce more of the same product, and they do it well. They have also now, largely, become registered as organic suppliers on the world market, which has increased their value. That makes theirs a premium product and they are looking for premium markets, and of course the Japanese market is one of them.

Tariffs have not been eliminated on beef, but over the next 15 years they will be halved on frozen beef and they will be down by 15 per cent on fresh beef. As I said, this is a better deal than anybody else has; and, should anybody else get a better deal, we will be getting it along with them, thank you very much. We are now also exempt from the national snap-back tariff that Japan can enforce with other nations. If the quota gets out of step and they are worried about the amount of beef coming into Japan, they can actually impose a 50 per cent tariff. We are exempt from that.

As for grain, my electorate and South Australia generally are exporters of grain. Japan is our fourth-largest market for wheat. We do operate under low tariffs into Japan currently, but there are some very highly regulated quotas, some of which at last will be going by the board. In particular, we will be the only country able to export feed wheat into Japan outside this very strict quota regulation. That gives us a great advantage in the world market. Barley will be duty free and have no quota. That is a great opportunity for us. The Japanese beef industry is always looking for good quality feed.

Seafood is very big business in my electorate right around the coastline, but particularly around Port Lincoln. Southern bluefin tuna tariffs are being phased out over 10 years. I know the industry would like to have seen them phased out quicker, but they are going, and that is a movement forward. We have seen quite a bit of confrontation, trying to get rock lobster into certain markets, particularly the Chinese market, in previous years. Rock lobster tariffs are being reduced immediately, from 9.6 per cent, as are those for prawns and abalone, of which the Grey electorate is a prominent supplier.

In the resources sector, coal, iron ore and LNG already have duty-free access to Japanese markets. They are the things that they have wanted from us for a very long time, but there have been products like titanium oxide, which in my electorate is mined at Iluka's Jacinth Ambrosia deposits just out of Ceduna, which will have tariffs reduced to nothing over the next few years.

All of those things are good for my electorate. I look forward to giving speeches that will highlight the benefits of both the Korean free trade agreement and, particularly, the Chinese free trade agreement, which has just been reached, at least in headline form, over the next few months. I look forward to Andrew Robb continuing his stellar performance and convincing the Indian nation that it is indeed in their great interest and ours to advance the cause of free trade.

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