James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to commend our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on the conclusion overnight of negotiations for the Australia-UK free trade agreement. This is an utter milestone moment. It will benefit so many parts of the Australian economy. As a South Australian, I am so excited about the benefit to our wine industry with the removal of tariffs on Australian wine being exported into the United Kingdom from the commencement of the agreement. I have the spiritual home of the Australian wine industry in my electorate, with the Penfolds Magill Estate in the heart of Sturt where the iconic Penfolds brand was born 167 years ago. Across South Australia, so many great wineries are going to benefit from their renewed market access back into the UK that we lost when they entered the Common Market in 1971.

Some markets for Australian wine have become unreliable in recent times and it has demonstrated the importance of us having diversified markets for our wine and for so many other products. I don't make this comment as an aspersion; it is a compliment, I promise: they are great drinkers in the United Kingdom. They love Australian wine already. They will get a lot more because now we will be able to compete equally and evenly with the European competitors. We know Australian wine is the best and Australian wine will do very well out of this agreement.

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