Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister inform the House how the passage of legislation enabling the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement will create new and exciting opportunities for Australia's exporters in goods and services? What other initiatives will strengthen Australia's capacity to compete in global markets, including in the knowledge industries of the future?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. I know that there are many innovative industries, many dynamic entrepreneurial businesses, in her electorate that are looking forward to the enhanced opportunities to trade with China. Today, the legislation enabling the implementation of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement has passed this House. It is important for Australians, and Australian businesses in particular, to have confidence that the parliament works—and it was working today.

We all understand that the Chinese economy is in transition from a resource intensive, investment led growth to one that is premised on greater consumption, particularly of services. Just this week, we saw Chinese growth moderating to 6.9 per cent in the third quarter, still a very high figure, off a very big base. But we also saw growth in disposable incomes of 9.2 per cent and retail sales growing by 10.9 per cent from the 2014 quarter. And online retail business in China has surged 35 per cent year on year to the point where online retail is bigger in China than it is in the United States, and that is a gigantic opportunity for Australian businesses, at every level.

Elsewhere, the government is ensuring that it is doing everything to deliver a more innovative economy, to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the free trade agreement. We know on this side of the House that this is the most exciting time to be an Australian. We know that the opportunities available to Australian businesses are now, thanks to the hard work of the trade and investment minister, opening up these new markets. The only limits on our ability to seize those opportunities are our enterprise and imagination—and Australians have plenty of that, and they have plenty of courage. The fearfulness and anxiety that the opposition peddles every day is not being listened to by a confident nation or by confident businesses that want to get in and have a go.

We have been consulting extensively—for example, on equity crowdfunding. We will be introducing equity crowdfunding legislation by the end of the year. That will enable new businesses to raise money using the power of the internet in a much more affordable fashion, a vital reform. Honourable members are familiar with the way in which we reversed the Labor government's catastrophic changes to employee share schemes, which did so much damage to the start-up sector, an extraordinary blunder which was even acknowledged as such by the Labor Party.

Finally, may I say that, last night, at the Prime Minister's science prizes I was so pleased to award prizes to two great science teachers—because it is those teachers, right with Australians in their youngest years, who are building the foundations for our future prosperity. (Time expired)