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

I rise to speak in favour of the second reading of the Customs Amendment (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2021 and the associated bill. I start by saying I'm very proud to be speaking on this bill, and I hope to have the opportunity to speak on similar bills many more times, for as long as I've got the honour to serve in this place. Free trade and pursuing a free trade agenda and export opportunities for this country is one of the reasons that I've been inspired to want to serve in this place. I think that trade with the rest of the world is vital to the continued success of our country, the continued growth of our economy, the continued increase in the number of jobs in our economy and the prosperity that that brings, and I'm certainly proud to be a part of a government that has such a strong history and plans for the future when it comes to expanding and improving our engagement with the world, particularly economically and particularly through free trade agreements.

We know, of course, that we've already taken steps to pursue a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom, and I commend Minister Birmingham and, now, Minister Tehan for the progress that is happening there. It would be fantastic to see this country be one of the first nations, if not the first nation, to sign a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom now that they have exited their customs union with the remaining European Union. Equally, it's been good to see progress with regard to signing a free trade agreement with India. There's still some work to be done there, and I might make some comments about India, regarding RCEP, later on in in this address, but it's great to have such a forward-thinking agenda when it comes to pursuing free trade opportunities. Of course, this bill is the culmination of a long process, but we're happy to be now at this point, where we are making the legislative changes we need to to bring into force the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that we've signed with the 10 ASEAN nations and four other nations—New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and China—as well as Australia.

Before I started a career—rightly or wrongly—in politics, I had the pleasure of working at an iconic Australian wool company, Michell. It was certainly iconic in South Australia; I think it was nationally. They're in their 151st year of operations, having commenced in 1870 in a small mid-north town in South Australia. In the eight years I worked in the wool industry, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity of travelling to most of the countries that are covered by this agreement.

Of course, the wool industry is one of the industries that, undoubtedly, built this nation, probably the first major industry since European settlement in Australia. Not just in the early days but also particularly in the fifties and sixties, it was one of the largest—and sometimes the largest—export commodity industries in the nation. Before the petrochemical textile products that we now see dominating the sector, cotton and wool made up the vast majority of fibres that were used in apparel textiles but also more broadly in the textile industry. Though wool doesn't have the same volume that it had decades ago, from a quality point of view, I think no-one would dispute that Australian merino wool and products made from Australian merino wool, like the suit I'm in right now, are some of the best fabrics and best textiles in the world. Australia, of course, is renowned for its superfine, high-quality merino wool for apparels, particularly in weaving.

Michell was a company that operated right through the wool supply chain, from early-stage fibre processing, scouring and carbonising right up through combing and superwashing for shrink resistance to spinning, knitting, and even cut-and-sew. When I worked at that company, starting as the commercial manager and then the general manager in the textiles division, I had the opportunity to work in a part of the business that was 100 per cent export, and our supply chain was right throughout Asia and South-East Asia in particular. So I had a lot of experience with the issues that are going to be addressed in the changes that are made thanks to this agreement.

I also see this agreement, very much, as a foundation, and other speakers have mentioned that this is something we can build on. Obviously, the nations that it covers are already very important economically to us. I think nine of our 15 most substantial trading partners are in this agreement. Clearly, although we have other bilateral free trade agreements with some of the nations in this, it is a good thing to bring them all together into a group of 15, because it provides an opportunity for that group to pursue and make common changes in the interests of free trade, trade liberalisation and increasing the economic activity within the member nations of the agreement.

For a country of 25 million people that's as wealthy as we are, we know that wealth comes from the fact that we export and that we make our money not only through the economy here within Australia but also, on top of that, from our ability to export and sell to a market well beyond the 25 million Australians that we have here. Free trade is a great thing. The economic opportunities are clear and obvious. For a nation like Australia, it means jobs. It means a high national income. It's also very important for the peace and harmony of the planet. For thousands of years, trade restrictions have led to significant global conflicts. If we can be more integrated economically—if we can rely on other countries economically and if we can sell the things that we make the best or the services that we produce the best to the other nations of the world and, equally, buy the best that they have to offer—we will be less likely to have conflict. That's a very positive additional benefit of free trade. It's not only the economic dividend but also the peace and security dividend of us being interconnected. If we think of the nations that are captured within this agreement, the more engagement with and the greater the depth of the economic ties and harmony between those nations that are already on our doorstep and in our region, the better that's going to be, economically and from a security point of view.

I note that India were initially a part of negotiations when it came to RCEP. They made the decision a few years ago that they would not progress towards the agreement with the other nations involved, which is now being reached and which we are now putting in place through this legislation and other nations are doing similar things to implement. That is a disappointment, but hopefully it is temporary. I know that there is goodwill amongst the other 14 nations, like there is from Australia, to welcome India into this agreement as soon as they're ready and we can come to appropriate terms with them for them to have a part of this new structure that works for India and for the other existing nations that are members.

India is very much a disappointing omission from this group of nations. I think that, if we had the Indian economy within this agreement, it would be a truly Asian agreement—with lots of scope for other nations on the periphery of ASEAN, to be sure. The Indian economy is the largest economy in the region that is not represented, and I think that, if this is a foundation that we can build on, one of the things that we want to do is to progress their membership once they are equally open to negotiating it. In the meantime, as I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, we, as a nation, are pursuing, bilaterally, a free trade agreement with India. Whether success first comes through a bilateral agreement or via the RCEP mechanism, I'm very passionate about seeing a much more significant trade relationship between Australia and India, which will come if we have a free trade agreement of some sort with them.

There's also opportunity to deepen the terms of the RCEP. We have bilateral free trade agreements with other nations in the agreement already, of course. We have them with Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia and other ASEAN nations. Or economic zone with New Zealand is probably the most liberal trading arrangement we've got with any nation on the planet. And so I accept and concede that some elements of this agreement don't go as far as some of the other bilateral agreements that we have in place, but that wasn't necessarily what any of the parties were seeking at this stage. But I think we should have the ambition to work towards that in the years that come. I think that, if we can create some trust and goodwill through implementing what all 15 nations have agreed on and we have a mechanism to engage through this process regularly on ways to further liberalise the trade and investment relationship between the member nations, that will be a good thing.

Australia's future is clearly in trade, continuing to pursue export opportunities and continuing to seek every opportunity we can find to reduce barriers to trade and investment between us and other nations of the world, particularly those in our region. The RCEP group of countries, of course, are very much in our region.

I think this is an exciting time to debate this bill and to ratify it given some of the challenges but also opportunities, particularly in export markets, in the years ahead. It's timely that we are debating it now and, hopefully, passing it through this chamber and this parliament so that it can progress to be fully implemented not just here but amongst the other 14 member nations. I look forward to the opportunities that this free trade agreement is going to provide to businesses in my own electorate of Sturt but also right across Australia. Whether we like it or not, our future is going to be in much further integrating our supply chains and businesses across nations working together to create wealth and create jobs. This agreement is going to lead to that. I commend the bill to the House.

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