Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I also congratulate the member for Adelaide for this motion, because it comes at an incredibly important time for the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement negotiations. It's an important time because we all have an interest in making sure that the government gets this right and, in particular, that the new trade minister gets it right.

The new trade minister so far has had a pretty easy job. He's been going around basically promoting the work that was done by the previous government, saying: 'Isn't it great that we've got a UK free trade agreement, signed and negotiated by the previous government? Isn't it great that we've got an India free trade agreement, signed and negotiated by the previous government?' It's pretty easy going around claiming credit for other people's work. I must commend the new trade minister. He's been pretty good at taking credit for other people's work, and good luck to him, because those two agreements are in the national interest.

But the rubber hits the road here for the new trade minister. This is where we see whether he can take his training wheels off or not. He's right in the middle now of a serious negotiation, which we have to get right. As we all know, 50 years ago the EU changed its trading arrangements with Australia and New Zealand, and they said to New Zealand and Australia, 'We'll give you some benefits.' In the end, those benefits have worked much more for the EU than they have for Australia and for New Zealand. New Zealand have negotiated an FTA with the EU, and, as has been mentioned previously, we think in the end that New Zealand probably short-changed themselves. We do not want to see that happen to Australia.

So what we have to do is ensure that we get good outcomes when it comes to dairy, sheep, beef, sugar and rice. We have to make sure that EU farm practices are not exported to Australia, and we have to make sure that we get good outcomes when it comes to GI. The new trade minister understands that, and, to his credit, he stared the EU down when they tried to say, 'This is as good as it gets.' But now what we require is a significant amount of hard work to make sure that we get the outcome that we want. If we get a good outcome with the EU, it will take the proportion of our trade covered by free trade agreements beyond 80 per cent and heading towards 90 per cent. That is a huge win for our exporters, but we've got to make sure that we get the right outcome.

Having negotiated with Valdis Dombrovskis, I know that the EU trade commissioner is very detail oriented and very diligent in his work. He does his homework and comes to every negotiation very prepared. What we have to ensure is that we are doing exactly the same. This will not be an easy negotiation. This is going to get in the trenches. We have to make sure that, as we have done once before, we can do it again—that we will walk away. There is too much at stake here. Fifty years of missing out on access to the EU market is at stake here, and our farmers are watching. They want to make sure that, when it comes to rice, dairy, sugar, beef and lamb, we get the access we need and deserve. They want to make sure that, when it comes to GIs, we do not give away too much that will then impact on our agricultural production here in Australia. And we should note those farm practices that the EU have for a variety of reasons—and that's ultimately up to them—and the regulation they have which kills and stifles their farmers. We have to ensure that we do not see that type of regulation kill and stifle our farmers.

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