George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

() (): On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth, I present the committee's report, incorporating a dissenting report, entitled Pivot: diversifying Australia's trade and investment profile.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In presenting this report to the parliament, I want to highlight its title: Pivot. As trade and political tensions with the People's Republic of China escalate, one thing is clear: Australia needs to pivot. Good advice when investing in stocks and shares is to diversify your portfolio and make sure you don't have too much stock in any one industry or company, lest it fall over and you lose the bulk of your investments.

Unfortunately, Australia's portfolio has become less and less diverse over the years, and a big chunk of it is invested in a volatile stock, the People's Republic of China. It's been a no-brainer, though, for Australian businesses to go in that direction. China is a market we can sell to on an enormous scale and buy from at a cheap price. They've been a big buyer of Australian assets, too—agriculture land, property, resources, infrastructure—and there continues to be a great deal of interest in Australia from Chinese investors in Australia. Without intervention, it was inevitable that Australia would be so economically entangled with communist China.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses, though, in our nation's approach to trade. China's boycotting of Australia's barley, coal, wine and beef exports during times of elevated political tensions has raised question marks over who we should choose to trade with and what the term 'partner' actually means. It seems as a nation we're all the more vulnerable when we put too many of our economic eggs into the one basket. That vulnerability is exacerbated when the basket is woven by a totalitarian communist state that uses trade as a political weapon.

It is in this context that the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth conducted its inquiry into diversifying Australia's trade and investment profile, and the conclusion the committee has drawn from this inquiry is clear: Australia needs to pivot. This inquiry began in February 2020, before the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australia's trade and the economy more generally was actually known and fully realised. But the writing was on the wall a long time before the pandemic. The China question has been on many people's lips for decades, but it's been considered a problem too big to deal with. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many of the background issues of our nation's trade and political relationships with China to the forefront. I have to say that it's gone from being too big of a problem to deal with to too big of a problem to ignore.

But there is life after China. The committee has considered opportunities for Australia to diversify its export markets. India, Vietnam and Indonesia in particular present value opportunities for Australian businesses. As such, ensuring that access to these markets is available and should continue and be fostered has got to be a high priority for the Australian government.

The committee has also made recommendations aimed at protecting Australia's national interest and national security, particularly in sensitive and critical sectors. Notably, there are recommendations in this report that go to serious concerns regarding state owned enterprises and state linked enterprises funding our universities and owning or leasing our strategic infrastructure, including the port of Darwin. Given the ongoing tensions with communist China, it is an unacceptable security risk to have Chinese state owned and state linked enterprises involved in our universities and involved in our strategic infrastructure. It's a question of trust: can we trust the Chinese Communist Party with our strategic infrastructure? Can we trust the Chinese Communist Party with our education institutions? I don't think that there would be many right-thinking Australians who'd say yes. In fact, I actually don't think there'd be many right-thinking Chinese people who would actually say yes.

In terms of foreign investment, the committee has put forward recommendations regarding the need for foreign investment to be acutely in the national interest. Any foreign investment must be of clear benefit to the Australian people. Much foreign investment into Australia merely displaces Australian capital, rather than growing the economy by creating new jobs and business opportunities for Australians. The committee is of the view that there needs to be a clear definition of 'national interest' for the purposes of the national interest test for foreign investment and that our foreign investment regime needs to be more in line with the interests of the Australian people.

Solutions to our trade diversification issue are available domestically as well. Australia must be more self-sufficient. We can diversify by selling more raw product to ourselves. To that end, the committee recommends greater support for future-focused, innovative industries and Australia's manufacturing capabilities in order to diversify the range of goods and services that we export, while also ensuring that we have the supply capabilities necessary in times of crisis. Domestic investment, aided by things such as a national development bank and incentivising domestic investment of Australians' superannuation savings—all of this will further insulate Australia from the impact of international trade tensions and disruptions. It will provide alternatives to international investment that may pose a risk to either national security or the national interest.

The committee's recommendations will aim to realign Australia to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with a stronger, more self-sufficient and more enterprising economy. These recommendations were informed by a range of stakeholders who provided evidence on the opportunities and challenges relating to diversification. Most of the recommendations in the report were recommendations that were bipartisan. To that end, I want to acknowledge all the members of the committee, including the deputy chair. On behalf of the committee, I want to thank all of the individuals, businesses, peak bodies, academics, expert witnesses and government agencies that submitted to our inquiry or presented to our inquiry. It very much assisted in the final outcome. I also want to thank my committee colleagues, again, for their contribution to the inquiry. I want to acknowledge their commitment, particularly during such a challenging and uncertain time, where we had to postpone certain hearings because of pandemic restrictions. The onus is now on the Australian government. The onus is now on this government to urgently consider each of these recommendations and to implement the necessary changes to secure our nation's future. In doing so, the government should be mindful of the consequences for both our national security and our national interest if we fail to pivot.

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