Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

The Customs Amendment (Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement Amendment Implementation) Bill 2017 and the Customs Tariff Amendment (Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement Amendment Implementation) Bill 2017 are the legislative changes required as part of the recent update to the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement. The Customs Amendment (Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement Amendment Implementation) Bill 2017 amends the Customs Act 1901 to introduce new rules of origins for goods that are imported into Australia from Singapore. It introduces new procedures to claim preferential tariff treatment for goods that originate from Singapore and it extends the record-keeping obligations that apply to goods exported to Singapore that are produced and manufactured in Australia to Australian-originating goods that are exported to Singapore.

The second bill, the Customs Tariff Amendment (Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement Amendment Implementation) Bill 2017, provides for duty-free access on entry into force of the amended agreement for most eligible goods. It inserts a new schedule 4A to provide for excise-equivalent rates of duty on certain alcohol, tobacco, fuel and petroleum products and it repeals provisions in schedule 3 of the Customs Tariff Act that provide for excise-equivalent rates on duty on certain alcohol, tobacco, fuel and petroleum products in line with the amended agreement, after the expiration of the three-year transition period.

Labor supports these changes and, more broadly, we support the update to the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement. The original free trade agreement was signed by the Howard government, with the Goh government, back in 2003, and it was first updated by the Gillard government in 2011. This is the second update to that agreement. Singapore is our seventh-largest trading partner, and last year we exported more than $10 billion in goods and services to Singapore. This update provides a framework for bilateral investments. It also recognises a number of Australian qualifications, which will provide more opportunities for Australian workers in the areas of education, law, e-commerce, telecommunications and professional services. They're all good things. The updated rules of origin will also help cut red tape for exporters and reduce compliance costs. The harmonisation of investor rules for the Foreign Investment Review Board should also help to increase business in both countries. All of that is good news.

The updated agreement also restricts the use of ISDS mechanisms, and this is welcome. As part of the updated agreement, ISDS exemptions have been included for governments to regulate to ensure the protection of public welfare, including in areas of health and the environment. The ISDS provisions will not apply to tobacco control measures and Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Medicare Benefits Schedule, Therapeutic Goods Administration and Office of the Gene Technology Regulator. Measures with respect to the creative arts, Indigenous cultural expressions and other cultural heritage will also not have ISDS provisions apply to them and, likewise, Australia's foreign investment policy, including decisions of the Foreign Investment Review Board. These are important protections; however, I take this opportunity to restate Labor's position: we believe that ISDS clauses should be removed altogether. Sovereign governments should be able to legislate in the national interest and should not be constrained by litigious companies or groups.

A part of the updated agreement that's not in this bill that we don't support is the removal of labour market testing for contractual service suppliers. I've made this point in this place and elsewhere a number of times. This is the sort of stuff that makes Australians angry. Before a company brings a worker in from overseas—an electrician, a carpenter or a mechanic—we think they should first have to go through the basic task of seeing if there is an Australian who can do the job. That's not what is happening here. The government is using trade deals to waive this with a number of different countries.

Despite all the talk from the Prime Minister that this wouldn't happen, it is happening. It also contradicts the government's announcement earlier this year that labour market testing would be mandatory for all temporary skill shortage visa applications. In April, the Prime Minister said:

If a job is able to be done by an Australian, it should be done by an Australian. Every nation is entitled to take that point of view, and we certainly do.

When they announced the changes to temporary work visas, he said:

It will require, in almost all circumstances, in the majority of cases, mandatory labour market testing.

But in the policy document that was also released that day there was a get-out clause. On page 3, it said that labour market testing will be mandatory unless an international obligation applies. That's what's being done here. It is what was done with the Chinese-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the South Korean agreement and the Japanese agreement. They have waived labour market testing in this update. If the government would adopt the same approach with the range of other bilateral and regional free trade agreements they're currently negotiating, the impact would be that around 75 per cent of those who come to Australia to work would do so without labour market testing happening first.

That objection stated, we support the update to the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement and support this legislation. I told the Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister and the Singaporean trade minister that when they visited a few weeks ago. We are two countries with a long and important bond. We're both free and open economies. Our bureaucrats work together to open up our region for even more trade and investment. Our soldiers, sailors and air men and women train and fight together. Many Australians who fought and died in the Second World War lay forever in Singaporean soil. I hope this update will further cement the bonds between our two great countries and lead to more trade and investment.

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