Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Will the minister outline the importance of strong export markets with our reliable trading partners in creating and supporting Australian jobs, and is the minister aware of any threats to these jobs?

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. As I've said on many occasions, we on this side of the House take very seriously the importance of an ongoing open framework for trade investment to make sure that we drive the Australian economy and we drive jobs. This has been a government that has consistently ensured it has opened up preferential market access across the world for Australian trade exporters and for those businesses that are looking for opportunities to export, and made sure that, in the process, they grow the Australian economy and they grow, of course, Australian jobs. As the member for Leichhardt knows, one of our key exports is in fact coal. It is our second-largest export, valued at more than $42 billion in 2016, and, indeed, is Queensland's largest goods export.

But the member for Leichhardt asks if there are any threats to the jobs that are supported by the trade industry. Unfortunately there are threats that are displayed with respect to these trade related jobs, and we see it from an inconsistency of policy. We've seen today a consistent record of inconsistency from the Australian Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. If there is one thing that's crystal clear to making sure that Australia's exporters and all of those tens of thousands of jobs in, for example, the coal industry can rely upon good, consistent government policy to keep those export markets open, it's that we need to make sure that we are consistent on policy.

We saw, for example, that last year, anticoal activists like GetUp! proudly boasted that they would be running legal challenges that delay, limit or stop all the major infrastructure projects. They boasted about stopping mines, about stopping rail and about stopping ports, all to try and stop coal exports. The fact is that groups like GetUp!, who boast about these things, have ties. It should be no surprise to members on this side that, when the Leader of the Opposition was head of the AWU, he was personally responsible for donating $100,000 to the GetUp! campaign. This is the same guy who was on the board of GetUp! at the time. So the Labor Party runs around—in particular, the Leader of the Opposition runs around—claiming faux sincerity and concern for Australian coalminers. But this is the Australian Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition who donates $100,000 towards GetUp!, who's on the board of GetUp! and—guess what?—was actually involved, it appears, with Clean Event and, in particular, the holding company Jagen Nominees, and donated $50,000 to GetUp! only four months after he resigned from the GetUp! board. The simple fact is: there is no clearer example of a guy who's trying to fake sincerity than the Leader of the Opposition, who will say anything, do anything and then change positions afterwards. (Time expired)