Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting to hear members opposite talk about the China free trade agreement. It is an important agreement and it is an important agreement for Western Australia. The China relationship, in commercial terms, is a Western Australian relationship. We are the ones with the opportunity to underpin the export future of our nation through what we do with our iron ore, our bauxite, our alumina, our grain crops and our protein exports through seafood, beef, cattle and sheep.

The interesting thing about the China free trade agreement is that the government cannot help but wrap it up with all the strings of politics as often as it possibly can. We on this side want to support this agreement; members on that side need to understand community concern about the impact on people movement that comes through this agreement.

I am the person—single in this place—who stood in favour of overseas workers supporting the construction side of our resources sector at a time when it was harder than anything that members opposite have ever faced. All members opposite can do is try to wrap up this important free trade agreement with every string that they can find attached to people movements, when we in this parliament should be arguing for this free trade agreement. It is fundamentally about Western Australia, about Western Australian jobs and about Western Australia's future—and members opposite should get behind it for the nature of the reforms that it represents and the beneficial impact it will have on the jobs and the employment of the future in Western Australia.

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