Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is strengthening Australia's economic recovery by diversifying trade and investment ties and backing the recovery of Australia's visitor economy. Open trade is a net positive for Australia. Recent analysis shows that one in four Australian jobs is related to trade, and jobs in export industries pay five per cent above the national average income. Our tourism industry is also a significant employer across the country, particularly in regional areas.

In the October budget, the Albanese government made targeted investments to grow the Australian economy and create jobs by generating enhanced trade, tourism and investment opportunities. We are providing $100 million in funding towards our participation in the 2025 World Expo to be held in Osaka, Japan, an amazing city that I had the great fortune to visit last week. I understand much planning is underway, by both the Japanese government and our Japanese embassy, for the Expo in 2025. At the Osaka World Expo we will showcase our clean energy and low-emissions technologies, and strengthen our position as a trusted and reliable partner on energy security for the region.

Continuing our support for clean energy exports, the government has committed $19.6 million of funding towards the Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement. The agreement will advance bilateral cooperation in clean hydrogen and renewable energy trade, and, more broadly, potentially serve as a model for regional cooperation on green economy issues. The opposition is quite right that these are bipartisan issues, and we do support these good ideas when they arise.

We recognise that to meet the challenges of our time we need to deepen and diversify our trading relationships. Placing all your trade eggs in one basket has proven to be a risky economic strategy. As such, the Albanese government will deliver $4 million towards a trade 2040 task force. This is on top of our commitment to deliver new diversified market opportunities for our exporters. Our South-East Asia economic strategy to 2040 will map out further export and investment opportunities, matching Australian capabilities across sectors in South-East Asia.

Just last night the Albanese government successfully passed legislation to implement free trade agreements with India and the United Kingdom through both houses of the parliament. This is a triumph for Australian exporters. The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement will cut tariffs for 90 per cent of Australia's exports to India, while the UK FTA will cut tariffs on over 99 per cent of Australian goods and exports to the UK. Together, these agreements represent a major step forward, helping Australian businesses expand and support high-paying jobs.

We believe in diversifying trade with important economic partners like the European Union through the EU FTA. This huge market, with 450 million people and a GDP of $23 trillion, will deliver even more opportunities for our exporters. Unfortunately, the former government's inaction on climate change, their absolute denial of the effect of potential carbon border adjustment mechanisms by the EU and their mishandling of the submarine contract blocked our progress on this very important FTA. It was the Albanese government that brought back our trade negotiations and put the EU back on track. With those issues behind us, and those dinosaurs still over there opposite, we are on the path to conclude negotiations by the year 2023.

We know the last few years have been incredibly challenging for around 300,000 Australian businesses in the travel and tourism industry. The government is committed to growing and rebuilding the sector, so as to return it to the economic powerhouse we know it to be, and has committed $48 million to support this recovery. We are doing what we said we'd do and we are doing more. This $48 million investment in the travel and tourism sector will support marketing to attract workers to Australia's vibrant and dynamic tourism industry; invest in expanding the Hub, a portal run by the Accommodation Association of Australia; and help tourism businesses get back into the international market through activities like expos, development and marketing.

We've also opened applications for grants to upgrade caravan parks, which play a critical role in delivering affordable accommodation options for travellers, particularly families and those grey nomads who we know travel up and down the coast and around this country—to escape the winters of Victoria mainly.

On top of that, the Albanese government is providing $4.7 million over two years to modernise Tourism Research Australia's analytical offering, and $2 million over three years to Tourism Research Australia to measure the economic contribution of these all-important business events.

We are very proud to support open trade and tourism for Australia, and we know it's a bipartisan— (Time expired)

See this speech in context