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

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will create jobs, promote international trade and boost Australia's prosperity. The AIIB's purpose is to build the infrastructure needed by countries across the region, building trading capacity, productivity and prosperity. It will fill the gap in infrastructure across developing and less developed countries across the Asia-Pacific.

These countries are not just the nearest neighbours to Australia but are also our greatest potential customers. For example, the World Bank estimates that Indonesia has a reported $600 billion infrastructure investment gap over the next five years. Indonesian maritime and logistics infrastructure alone makes up $50 billion of this infrastructure gap over the next five years. With more than 10,000 islands and a population of 250 million, this kind of infrastructure is crucial to ensuring that products can get to market and services are delivered to communities. Indonesia is not alone in this regard, and the infrastructure gap is massive. But it is also a representative of the potential. From wool, wine and wheat to education, tourism and financial services, building the capacity for Asia will mean our neighbours can buy more of our goods and that we can bring more of our product to their markets. We can reach new markets and expand access to our existing markets.

Simply, joining the AIIB is in our interests and it is in our interests to be a founding member. With northern neighbours like Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and China, it is absolutely in our interests to join the bank and to make sure we are a founding member. The government have signed the three free trade agreements in this last year and a half, with South Korea, Japan and China, because we recognise the potential of the Asian market and how our future is dependent on our ability to access it. We need to be able to access those markets for our goods and services, but one of the things we can definitely do to help is to make sure that the countries of Asia have the infrastructure to be able to do that, and this is what the bank will focus on. If we can have the infrastructure in Indonesia improved, not only will it enable goods and services to flow more readily between the many islands in Indonesia but also it will give greater access to Australian goods and services, because if we can get access to better infrastructure in key ports in Indonesia then obviously our goods will flow more freely, there will be more demand for them, and that will put more money back into the pockets of Australian businesses, including Australian service providers and Australian farmers, and this will set up the future of our nation.

There is a possibility that Australia will also be a beneficiary of the AIIB's development loans, with an ability for the government to be a recipient of money in order to develop capacity in rural and regional Australia. This is a very important point. When I speak to my colleagues from regional and rural Australia—and the majority of them are obviously on the coalition side—one of the things that never ceases to amaze me is how much we need to continue to ensure that regional and rural Australia gets the infrastructure that it needs. Obviously the future is bright for agriculture, in particular, in regional and rural areas, and we need to ensure we have the infrastructure available to get the goods and services from regional and rural Australia to market and to get them to our neighbours in Asia and to other parts of the world, and this requires funding. It requires funding for ports and requires funding in particular for rail and roads to ports. This is something that as a nation we have not been as good at as we should have been, and it is something that this government is focusing on. To start with, in my electorate two major pieces of road infrastructure are currently being undertaken. The Princes Highway has been duplicated through to Colac and my hope is it will be duplicated beyond that. Also, the Western Highway, the key freight route between Melbourne and Adelaide, is being duplicated as far as Stawell, with further works to be undertaken after that. The government is putting its money where its mouth is, but, if we can get better access to even further funds from the bank, you can rest assured that those in regional and rural Australia will see this as an absolute bonus. The more we can do to help especially state governments with their part of the road network, the better we will all be. State governments in particular have been asleep at the wheel when it comes to maintaining their road networks, let alone upgrading and improving them, so once again we will need to step up to the plate on this.

The AIIB will operate like currently existing development banks such as the World Bank. There is nothing extraordinary about this. The way it will operate will be similar to the World Bank, and we have all seen where the World Bank has operated effectively. I must say the World Bank has had to learn as it has gone through its various stages, because some things the World Bank have done have not got the results and have not been implemented as successfully as we would all have wanted. The World Bank continues to adapt and continues to try and ensure that its funding and projects continue to deliver, and the AIIB will operate very similarly to this.

To find an example of how it works, we need only look to Pakistan, where in Karachi the port is being completely rebuilt thanks to a $115 million loan. Karachi's port, prior to the development, took 60 per cent of Pakistan's imports. After the World Bank's development project is complete, Karachi's port capacity will be tripled. The project is expected to be finished at the end of the year. For a developing country like Pakistan, it is incredibly important that it can get this type of project up. You will have to excuse me, Mr Deputy Speaker, I have a touch of the hiccups and I might just pause for a glass of water—

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