Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. Of course, her electorate represents a major centre for the production and processing of red meat. As a Queenslander, I'm very pleased, like her, to say that Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia. Whether it's the farms of the Fitzroy Plains through to the coolrooms of the meat plants in Rocky, all of them rely on affordable, reliable power. The member for Capricornia has been a very strong advocate for the people of Capricornia, not only with respect to the export of red meat but also with respect to the coalition government's strong agenda when it comes to free trade agreements.

The member for Capricornia, like me, was at the launch of the Red Meat Advisory Council's 2017 State of the industry report. This report talks about the great success they've had at RMAC in exporting Australian red meat, Australian beef. That's able to be secured thanks to the free trade agreements that we've put in place and also by making sure we have kept our eye very firmly on what it takes to make Australian exporters competitive—that is, reliable and affordable energy. I note, for example, that the CEO of the meat processor JBS, which employs around 12,000 people across five states, said, 'I welcome the announcement of the government's National Energy Guarantee that, as a policy, offers a solution to lower the costs of energy, deliver reliability and underpin a competitive Australian manufacturing sector.' So there you hear it from someone who is at the epicentre of making sure our red meat exports go well and making sure we are able to export red meat, which drives economic growth and jobs in Australia. That's the reason we see some 371,500 more Australians in jobs today. It is as a consequence of our trade policies and as a consequence of our steady gaze on making sure we get the big calls right on energy policy. The simple fact is that when it comes to the opposition they get the big calls wrong. They are getting it wrong on energy policy. They sure as hell get it wrong when it comes to trade policy.

We don't forget—and I know the people of Capricornia don't forget—Labor's call when it came to red meat exports and live cattle exports. What did they do for the people of Capricornia? They shut down the trade overnight. What did they do to our bilateral relationship with Indonesia? They junked it. The fact is that the coalition is going to provide reliable, affordable energy. The coalition is going to provide the right economic conditions for 371,000 more Australians to have jobs, as a result of our free trade deals, and only the coalition will deliver the policy certainty to make sure that Australians have jobs into the future and have reliable and affordable energy.

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