Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) that estimated budget allocations for the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) program decreased from $169 million in the financial year 2022-23 to $110 million in the financial year 2025-26;

(b) the current pause between rounds 3 and 4 of the EMDG program means no financial support will be available to businesses in the 2024-25 financial year; and

(c) stakeholder concerns that the Government is considering, through a strategic refocus, removing eligibility for grants under the program for exports to certain markets; and

(2) calls on the Government to reverse its policy intention and ensure that exporters can continue to access the program, regardless of the markets they seek to market and export to.

Export market development grants obviously relate to trade. They support our exporters as we open up to new markets for our products. These grants are to support that. Before I get to the grants specifically, which is what I want to talk about today, I just want to remind this Chamber and the parliament of the fact that one of the crowning achievements of the coalition government, from 2013 to 2022, was the free trade agreements we did during that time. It's not well advertised, not well promoted, especially when people review the coalition period, but, when we came to government in 2013, about 25 per cent of the goods and services that we exported were covered by free trade agreements, and, by the time we left government in 2022, with the bilateral agreements we initiated and the multilateral agreements we did, nearly 80 per cent of goods and services that we exported were covered by free trade agreements. That is obviously great news for all the exporters in our country, of which there are many. The fact that we are an export powerhouse right now is really driving our economy. It's a very important part of our economy, a very important part of our employment.

I wasn't going to bring this up, but I noticed something that was brought up by the government this morning in the Treaties Committee. They want the ISDS provisions within the New Zealand-Australia free trade agreement to be revisited and are looking to remove them. I can tell this chamber and you, Deputy Speaker, that, if we were to revisit the ISDS provisions—we have about 10 of them—with bilateral agreements, some of those agreements would not be done. We can sign up to ISDS provisions very confidently because we have good governance in this country. We won the only challenge that we've ever had through the ISDS provisions, and our sovereignty is not threatened by them. But I am conscious that there are many, especially in the union movement—and we always need to remember this—who are not in support of free trade. They do not believe in it for ideological reasons, and we're seeing that today with the ISDS provision thing through the Treaties Committee.

Let's go to the Export Market Development Grants program. It's very important. I thank the member for Casey, who I think is going to second this motion in a moment. In his previous employment, he was very familiar with this grants program and its importance for business and for exporters from this country. I thank him for that. What is Labor's record on this since getting into government, Deputy Speaker Archer? It may surprise you. I'm going to say it probably doesn't surprise you. In the May 2023 budget the Labor government cut $61 million from this grant program, as one of the first things they did. In fact, the $110 million in the 2025-26 budget is the lowest funding for this grant program since 1980. What is disappointing about this is that these grants are all about helping people to grow our economic pie. This money, if invested wisely, is money that is going to generate more income, more tax collections, more economic growth and more employment in our country.

I also note—and I've spoken to the department and the minister about this—the time line for round 4. The application process will be completed, hopefully, around November, but the first lot of money is not likely to flow from the EMDG program until July 2025. That means that, in the 2024-25 financial year, there will be no money coming out of this grant process. In that financial year of 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, there are likely to be no grants that have actually been applied so that people can spend that money, because it looks like that won't be until after the middle of 2025. That is a real penalty. I think it shows that the government doesn't understand the importance of this program.

I also note that they did put it out to have a review into the EMDG program. I have no issue with that. I've seen some of the preliminary decisions and some of the rules that the government tabled last week in the Senate about how this program would work. Some of it looks good. Some of it is looking at the financial sustainability of the companies that get these grants. I applaud the government for looking at that. Obviously we want to give the grants to companies that are financially viable and sustainable, but I am very wary of some of the discretion that has been given to the minister and the fact that this cannot be geographically focused to a small area.

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