Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I won't take the full five minutes—maybe four minutes and 55 seconds! I did want to ask the Treasurer—it's a shame he didn't have the time to be with us—about what the strategy is for increasing Australia's trade and economic engagement with Indo-Pacific economies in the next six years. In the last six years, there have been some free trade agreements, but (1) we need high-quality free agreements and (2) increasing trade and economic advantage for Australian businesses is a bit more than just free trade agreements—you've got to do a bit more than that. So I was keen to find out what the Treasurer or any of the honourable members opposite have in mind. There's been a lot of marketing in the trade space. Six years ago this government boasted it was more focused on Jakarta than Geneva, but it's really taken its eye off the ball in the Indo-Pacific. That's why I'm keen to ask these questions.

The revised Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, the TPP, didn't capture all the fast-growing markets to our north. The RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which has the potential to deliver significant opportunities for the Australian economy, is becoming famous for its curious case of shrinking ambitions. I was keen to see what any of the honourable members had to say about that. For years, we've heard promises of substantial conclusion to RCEP by year's end, along with promises of a high-quality deal. But, if you prioritise speed for political gain, as those opposite quite often do, then the quality, obviously, will suffer.

I do acknowledge the bipartisan work on IA-CEPA—negotiating that with Indonesia. From our point of view, our caucus is yet to come to a conclusion and fully consider its position on this. But it's fair to say that signing another deal is not a serious strategy to expand our exports to the region. There's more required than that, particularly at a time when the need to diversify our trade portfolio is becoming painfully obvious. Bragging about a trade surplus has more to do with a mine closing in Brazil than it does with the government's policies. It's not a serious strategy, which is why I'm keen to hear from those opposite, if the time allows and if they want to get up and answer a question—

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