Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga is warned.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Will the Treasurer inform the House how the Australia-China free trade agreement will impact on the Australian economy, creating jobs and boosting growth?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question. As the member for Corangamite knows from when we visited Boundary Bend just near her electorate, which produces Cobram Estate olive oil, we need to export more to the world to build the wealth in Australia. That is what it is about. We are on the threshold of our greatest ever era as a nation. I have no doubt about that. The opportunity for that will come if we make the right decisions today. Those right decisions include ensuring that we get our resources, our energy and our agricultural product into new and growing markets fast.

The most exciting transformation we have seen in the global economy in recent years is the emergence of the middle class in Asia. Not only are they using our resources, our iron ore, our coal and our gas, to start to build the infrastructure they need to grow their economies but the emerging middle classes that we are going to see over the next 20 years are going to want what we can deliver—that is, better quality financial services, better quality health services, better quality educational services and better quality aged-care services.

In India alone the middle class over the next 10 years is going to increase from 200 million people to 600 million people. In China the middle class is going to grow from 150 million people today to a billion in just 16 years. As a result of the free trade agreement that this government has brought to a close after 10 long years of negotiations, we are now going to give Australian businesses the opportunity to access markets on a scale we have never seen before. After all, for everyday Australian workers on the average wage, around $9,000 a year of their wage comes from export income—about 15 per cent of their wage. If we can increase our exports, if we can increase the dollars that we earn out of China, out of India, out of Korea and out of Japan, it is going to increase the wealth of our nation. It is going to grow our economy. It is going to make the next generations more prosperous than even we could have dreamt of.

These agreements are hugely important for our economy. As it stands at the moment, mining and agriculture are doing the heavy lifting. They represent less than 15 per cent of our economy, but they represent 70 per cent of our exports. Services like health, education and financial services are 70 per cent of our economy but just 17 per cent of our exports. The free trade agreement is a ticket to our future.