Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I table the 2015 review of the Export Market Development Grants Scheme. Over 40 years, the scheme has helped smaller exporters cover their promotional costs offshore. It is worthwhile recalling that bipartisan agreement across the floor allowed it to proceed, providing invaluable support to development of globally competitive industries.

The scheme has helped grow our economy and increase prosperity.

This complexity is a good way to remind ourselves of why we have negotiated free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China. It also explains the significance of trying to ensure that our businesses can work with these emerging trends and developments to our advantage. These things are good things: global value chains, e-commerce and digital communications. They are opening the world, especially to SMEs, in ways that were not even thought possible in the recent past. We need to ensure that businesses have these sorts of tools to exploit them. EMDG is one of those tools.

I appointed Mr Michael Lee as the independent reviewer of the EMDG Scheme in December 2014. A successful career in business has given Michael a unique insight into the challenges of exporting. At my request, he considered the effectiveness of the EMDG in two ways:

sustainable

In his review, Mr Lee spoke with a broad range of stakeholders—a very extensive consultation. The breadth and depth of this consultation is evident in this excellent report. He found the scheme remains true to its name: still encouraging the development of markets overseas. He advised it should therefore continue.

I am glad to acknowledge the presence of Mr Lee here today, and Mr Dan Barton, who is also present here today, who was the head of the secretariat. I would like to thank both of these men, particularly Michael, who headed up this review, and of course the team that made up the secretariat.

Over four decades, EMDGs have supported more than 45,000 Australian exporters. Some of them are now household names: Resmed, The Wiggles, the Sydney Bridgeclimb and Casella—exporters of the famous Yellowtail wine. More than half of the finalists in the 2014 Australian Export Awards, for example, were beneficiaries of this scheme—half of the finalists in last year's export awards.

So, thank you, Michael Lee, for a timely review. The government will consider the recommendations carefully and respond to them in due course. I do feel that this report will stand the scheme in good stead for many years to come. It has been a great scheme because it has been bipartisan; it has also been under review constantly during its 50 years. That is the mark of the success of this scheme.

I present a copy of the 2015 review of the Export Market Development Grants Scheme entitled Certainty and ConfidenceExports and Jobs for a Changing Global Economyand a copy of my ministerial statement.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (16:21): I call on the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to speak in response to the minister's statement for 4½ minutes.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor welcomes the tabling of the 2015 review of the Export Market Development Grants scheme. The Export Market Development Grants scheme encourages small and medium Australian businesses to develop export markets. It was, of course, an initiative of the Whitlam government, in 1974. Like many initiatives of the Whitlam government, the Export Market Development Grant scheme has endured. Fortunately, the Export Market Development Grant scheme has endured with bipartisan support. It has strong support from both sides of politics because it is good for business and it is good for the economy.

The shadow minister for trade has noted before that Labor is disappointed that the Abbott government has not pursued reforms to the scheme which were proposed by the former government. Labor, in government, sought to realign the Export Market Development Grants scheme to support small businesses exporting to East Asian and frontier and emerging markets.

Michael Lee was appointed as the independent reviewer of the EMDG scheme in December 2014. In the course of his review, Mr Lee received submissions from a very broad range of stakeholders. He convened public meetings attended by businesses and individuals, he consulted industry organisations and he met with representatives of state and federal governments. I join with the Minister for Trade and Investment in acknowledging Mr Lee's presence and thank him for his review. I acknowledge also the public servants who worked on the review.

The review contains a number of very important recommendations, and we look forward to hearing from the government about whether it will accept the recommendations that have been made in the course of this review. We will look carefully at the review itself and very carefully at any government response, which we hope will be substantive and timely.