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

My question is to the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. Will the minister update the House on how the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement will boost innovation, so creating jobs and investment across Australia, including in my electorate of Corangamite?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for my first question as Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science—I hope the first of many from both sides of the House, because the Prime Minister has determined that innovation will very much be at the centre of the new economy in Australia. He very reasonably, I think, gave me the job of managing that process and I was very grateful to receive it. I look forward to fixing some of the hurdles that have been in the path of making the most of innovation in our economy.

I was very pleased to be in the member for Corangamite's electorate in Geelong last Wednesday to open a new facility for a company called Carbon Revolution, which is a new business in Geelong.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is called Carbon Revolution. It is creating and exporting carbon fibre rims to Detroit for Ford, starting from nothing, using $24 million of their own private investment and $5 million under the Geelong Region Infrastructure and Investment Fund, and employing dozens and dozens of workers from Ford and Alcoa who are looking for retraining and new jobs using high-tech, world-beating research and technology. They have beaten all competitors around the world for the creation of the first carbon fibre wheel rim. The adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership will, of course, make it even easier to access markets in 40 per cent of the world's economy, thanks to the work of the Minister for Trade and Investment. Companies like Carbon Revolution will be able to expand their operations more easily in areas that have become part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Specifically in the area of innovation, the TPP will remove red tape that is hampering private foreign investment in sectors like advanced manufacturing. It will create a common set of rules around intellectual property protection and enforcement, which are very important in terms of innovation and the creation of new ideas so they can be protected. It will provide for the free flow of data across borders for services and investors so that companies that are, for example, accommodation companies that use data across different borders will find it easier to do so, right through to telcos that provide data management services in multiple Trans-Pacific Partnership countries.

Why are we doing all this? We are doing all this because freer trade leads to jobs and growth. We get that on this side of the House. Freer trade leads to more jobs and it leads to growth. We are not trying to frighten the Australian people into poverty, unlike the Labor side of the House. We are not trying to frighten people about free trade. We know that free trade leads to more jobs and more growth, and that is why it is good for Australia.