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

My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Will the minister outline to the House the benefits of the coalition government's trade agenda and what our agreements mean for the nation's economic growth and the creation of jobs for hardworking Australians? Is the minister aware of any risks to those benefits?

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

I thank the member for Gilmore for her question. She is yet another member of the coalition that is resolutely focused on creating export opportunities for Australian businesses, resolutely focused on boosting Australia's economic growth and resolutely focused on creating employment opportunities for Australians; all delivered through this coalition government's strong commitment to opening up markets globally and to making sure that we create the best possible opportunities, in particular, for Australia's small- to medium-sized enterprises.

I also want to welcome Minister Ferreyros; it's great to have you joining us in the public gallery. Minister Ferreyros and I were very pleased to be able sign the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement this morning. This has been one of the fastest-concluded FTA agreements in Australia's history. Today, we are, as a result of this deal, ensuring that Australian businesses have access to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Peru, with its 31 million people, has had an average annual growth rate of 5.9 per cent over the last 10 years and much higher standards of living. That's what we'll be able to tap into together in a deal that's going to be good for Australia and good for Peru. It is, of course, building on the work of the coalition with respect to what we did with the North Asian powerhouse economies of China, Korea and Japan—again, all agreements driving employment growth and economic growth here in this country. And let's never forget that it was the Australian Labor Party that stood opposed to the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. It was the Australian Labor Party that condoned the disgraceful multimillion-dollar campaign from the trade union movement against the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. This deal that we've now put in place with Peru—and likewise with the TPP 11—we're doing despite the Australian Labor Party.

You know, the problem is—and we've seen evidence time and time again—that this Leader of the Opposition says one thing to one audience and a different thing to another audience. I was reading the Daily Telegraph and I saw this headline from last year: '"I'm at war with business": Shorten'. He went along to the BCA and was talking to the BCA about their candidate in Batman. He was asked about Ged Kearney, and this is what he said about Ged Kearney—he said not to worry about her, 'she's hopeless.' That was his remark about Ged Kearney: 'She's hopeless.' When he talks to the BCA he says that their candidate in Batman is 'hopeless', but when he's out there in Batman he'll say, 'Don't worry about what I said in the Business Council; get right behind Ged Kearney, she's got a great, bold vision for Australia!' The fact is, the Australian people have the measure of this man. They know that what he says in the boardrooms is very different to what he says in the electorates. We know the truth. The truth is what he says about Ged Kearney. She is hopeless, and he's a hopeless Leader of the Opposition.