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

I don't need it. Those programs always look at the drama of what happened when people were in government. But one thing that I think was a great achievement of the coalition government between 2013 and 2022 and which I always remind people of was in the area of trade. We did five or six bilateral agreements and a number of other agreements, including joining the CPTPP. That meant that in 2013 about 25 per cent of the goods and services that we exported were covered by a free trade agreement. By the time we left, the last two agreements we made in government were the bilateral agreement with the UK and the agreement with India. The percentage was at 80 per cent of goods and services by then, so those free trade agreements were great achievements of the coalition government between 2013 and 2022. We're the party of free trade and the party of trade which has increased the wealth of our country. We're exceptionally proud of that.

Why do I say that's been great for our country? When a country is selling stuff, wealth basically gets generated on what they sell. So exports are an exceptionally important part of generating wealth in our country. When we get markets for our food, for our mining, for education and for our services, we are better off. In my local community, people will sometimes come to me and mention the biggest employer in their area. It might be health or a big base hospital. Someone came to me the other day in my local community and said, 'The NDIS providers are a big employer and a big provider of jobs in our community.' That's true, but, before that, you need to be making money from the sector or an industry you collect tax from. That money then filters through to those public or government jobs. The biggest, most important employer in my area, is the Casino Food Co-op, which is a meat processing facility in my region. They're the biggest by a long way. They were here last night as part of the Parliamentary Friends of Red Meat group. They employ over 1,000 people. At any time, they have up to 1,200 employees. They have a facility in Casino predominantly for beef, and they have another facility in Booyong, not far from where I live, which is a pig processor. They are the biggest private employer in our region, and that makes them very important to me and to our region. Why have I brought them up when I'm talking about the CPTPP and trade? It's because they export 70 per cent of what they process. Again, that is why free trade agreements and the CPTPP are really important. Part of the bilateral deal we did with the UK and the UK joining the CPTPP means that I—I'm a very modest beef producer myself—and all our beef farmers and the people that work within that processing facility have more markets to sell to.

I see my colleague the member for Nicholls over there. I always get lost on the previous name of the member for Nicholls. We regional MPs very much know, understand and respect how important trade is. If I were to go through the four major trading items and group them, food ag is a big one of them. I think we're approaching around $70 billion. The other big three exports that fund our country, jobs, effectively the NDIS, our health system and a whole lot of stuff—because they're private jobs that we collect taxes from to pay for those public services—are iron ore, coal and gas, each of which we sell a lot of. Those three, combined with food and the ag sector, are the four export sectors that fund our country. Where are all those sectors? The member for Nicholls knows that those four sectors are all in regional Australia. You don't see, with all due respect to our city cousins, a lot of farms in our cities. You don't see a lot of coal mines in the cities. You don't see a lot of iron ore mines in the cities. And you don't see a lot of gas wells in the cities either. We in the regions understand that. We in the regions respect that those four commodities are very important in our trade world and our trade life and fund very much of what we do.

I know, Deputy Speaker, that you understand that, because you're a Western Australian. As the shadow trade minister, I had the great privilege to go to the Pilbara. To get there, obviously, I had to go to Perth Airport. I was at the Perth Airport. I'm sure you've been there many times, Deputy Speaker. It was about 5.30 am. It is packed at that time with wall-to-wall high vis. You didn't mess around going through security. Everyone had their high vis on. Everyone was getting on a plane. They did this very regularly. Everyone was just going, 'ching, ching, ching,' as they went through security. Everyone knew what to do. You didn't hesitate, because it was like a filing system. Then we got on the plane, shut the windows and put the Air Pods in, and off we flew. I'd encourage anyone to look at that. It's a great eye-opener and reminder, if anyone is ever in Western Australia, to go to Perth Airport and look at that. It is a great reminder of those important sectors. Those mining jobs that those people are going to are very important. They're well-paying jobs. One of four jobs in this country is dependent on trade and on what we sell, and they're higher-paying jobs. If you work for a company that exports, that is a trading company selling things overseas, you are higher paid, on average, than if you were in a company that is not involved in the trade industry. Again, it really accentuates how important trade and those jobs are to our region.

To close, one of the great achievements of the coalition government from 2013 to 2022 were the free trade agreements that we did. In 2013, 25 per cent of goods and services we exported were covered by a trade agreement; by 2022, that had gone to 80 per cent. That has grown markets across a whole lot of sectors—many more sectors than the ones I just mentioned. There is a whole lot of wonderful health providers, education providers and other services and goods as well; I have just really focused on the major ones and the big-volume ones. The CPTPP is an important part of our trading relationships with countries around the Pacific. It's great to see the UK join that. It's going to strengthen the CPTPP. As I said at the beginning, I am very happy to support this bill.

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