Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I can hear the echoes of someone who might be put in that category—are putting thousands of jobs on the line that will be created through this very iconic agreement. They are putting thousands of Australian businesses at threat and they will lose millions of dollars if this deal does not go through. Furthermore, they threaten Australia's ability to engage in further trade deals with other nations. If Australia is seen as a country that changes parts of agreements already made or takes years to pass a FTA through the parliament, other countries will be deterred from seeking trade deals with us. In point of fact, I am convinced that to resist this legislation is to resist a better future for the Australian people, all for populist headlines that will not achieve one job here.

What is increasingly apparent is that the broader Australian community do not see any sense in further delay. In fact, you do not need to look too much further than Labor Premiers such as Daniel Andrews and Jay Weatherill who have openly supported the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, with Daniel Andrews saying:

The Chinese free trade agreement is good news for Victorian jobs ...

That is good news for all Victorians. Further, support has come from former Labor leaders, including former foreign minister Bob Carr, who reiterated that Australian jobs are safe under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. Only recently, in The Australian,he said:

... any incoming Labor government would have all the mechanisms it needs to protect … Australian workers.

Jennifer Westacott, Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, said:

Australia can't afford to have a lack of bipartisanship on ChAFTA, which is one of the most important trade opportunities in our history.

Most reasonable people know that the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is exactly the sort of initiative that Australia needs. Until recently, federal Labor was in real danger of being led by a very fringe group within the Australian parliament: the economic luddites of Australian politics. Happily, today they have agreed to pass the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and we congratulate them for coming to the realisation that most Australians have had for some time.

There is a powerful economic imperative for the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement to come into place before the end of the year. If it does, we will get a double cut in tariffs, one for 2015, and then another for 2016. A delay in the implementation of the agreement could see a loss of up to $300 million to the agricultural sector, and $110 million to the minerals industry. Our nation cannot afford to delay this agreement.

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