Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The wonderful electorate of Goldstein is full of many enterprising and entrepreneurial individuals. We may not have a particularly industry-filled electorate—in fact, our major centre of industry is around Bay Road in Sandringham—but we are allied to incredible industrial communities in and around areas such as Moorabbin, Braeside and Dandenong. A lot of the people who work in and own businesses and industry that help grow the potential of this great nation are in Goldstein—people who invested through their hard work and labours over many years to build the economic potential of this great country. Recently I was in parts of Braeside and Moorabbin, looking at die casting businesses as one of many businesses that are investing in the future and building the industry of our great country. Also within the Goldstein electorate there are thousands of people who own small businesses and work in the services sector as professionals who are also making an incredible contribution to building Australia's future.

That's why trade has always been at the centre of what Goldstein residents are concerned about. How can we create the potential and the opportunity that we need to make sure that future generations can have jobs, that we can create the wealth for our community and those beyond it, and that we can create the jobs that Australians need? That's why there's always been such a strong trade focus, and that's why there's so much enthusiasm and interest in the potential for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the new plurilateral trade agreement amongst 11 country partners across the Asia-Pacific rim. Of course we all know the long story behind the TPP. It was an agreement that was negotiated or attempted to be negotiated amongst many of the countries in our region. Unfortunately, a rise in popular sentiment towards protectionism has led some countries to back away. Ultimately, they are the ones who will suffer the consequences from not engaging the global marketplace.

I said in my first speech that we, as a country, are not an island continent producing finished goods. That is not who we are. That is not who the countries in our region are. That is not even what the United States is today. We are part of a global supply chain, producing and exporting goods and services to the world. So the opportunities that sit at the heart of free trade—free and open market access to the countries in our region—enable us to harness and take opportunities in that global supply chain to create economic benefits, and not just for us but globally, to increase economic and environmental efficiencies, and to use the productive capacity of our population and humanity to improve wealth and opportunities for everybody.

Under the TPP-11, we know there are incredible opportunities for people who live in Goldstein as well as across the great nation that we live in. We have increased market access to beef; we'll see reductions in tariffs from countries like Japan, Canada and Mexico, which will eliminate tariffs altogether within 10 years. We'll see an increase in our market potential and market access for wine in Canada, which is going to remove its tariff regime, which will be enormously beneficial for our wine exporters, including those in the great state of Victoria in places like the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula—and some members in this place may be familiar with their tipple. We'll see an increase in dairy market access, particularly in Japan, which will eliminate a range of tariff measures on dairy products, including cheese, as well as in many other countries, like Mexico and Canada, which are going to do the same on different types of dairy goods. Sheepmeat and all tariffs will also be eliminated. The potential for our resources and energy sector to increase their market access to many countries will also be realised.

Particularly around the suburban areas of Goldstein, we have a high number of factories that produce manufactured goods and finished goods—particularly, as a consequence of the former car industry, component manufacturing. There are people creating economic potential from the resources of this country, including, increasingly, from high-skill, high-value manufacturing. It was fantastic to see that, under the TPP-11, there will be tariffs eliminated on Australian exports to most countries worth an estimated $14 billion in 2016-17. So sitting at the heart of the TPP are opportunities for Goldstein and for those who want to invest and create a better growth environment in Australia. It sits at the heart of the job opportunities that we're all going to enjoy tomorrow.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no doubt that well-framed and fair multilateral trade arrangements have the potential to benefit Australia, and, what's more, to help build an open and balanced international system of trade that supports sustainable growth in developing countries. But not every trade agreement meets that standard, and all trade agreements should be subject to careful scrutiny and analysis.

The starting point is to recognise that modern so-called free trade agreements generally encompass a lot more than trade, and they continue, in many cases, to add to the noodle-bowl of bilateral or, at best, plurilateral arrangements. Complicated and uneven preferential deals between pairs of countries are not helpful in the long run, and yet the TPP-11, with its myriad side letters and suspended terms, has been described by the trade minister himself as '18 free trade agreements'. The TPP-11 includes, for example, the liberalisation of foreign labour access.

The TPP also exposes Australia to investor state dispute mechanisms that allow multinational companies to sue governments. That gives multinational companies rights that aren't afforded to domestic companies—rights that can have a chilling effect on domestic policy in areas like public health and environmental protection. We've previously seen ISDS action taken by Philip Morris against Australia's world-leading tobacco-harm-reduction policies. The highly concerning aspects of the original TPP that would've extended monopoly rights over biologic medicines—with corresponding healthcare and health-cost implications for Australia—have merely been suspended, pending the possible re-entry of the US.

If trade agreements were simply about reducing the tariff applied to Australian wine in Canada or increasing the tonnage of hard cheese that can be exported to Japan, it would be relatively easy to weigh up their quality. But modern trade and investment agreements go much wider than that. And what has been disappointing in the work of this parliament is both the obfuscation and the superficial cheerleading from the government in relation to any and all preferential trade agreements. Such treaties have been shielded from proper analysis and scrutiny. If the government is so convinced about the value of any particular trade agreement, why does it continue to keep the Australian public and indeed the Australian parliament in the dark? Why does it present these complex agreements in such cartoonish fashion, describing them in magic even reverential terms rather than being upfront about their details and allowing their impacts to be modelled?

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, when considering the first version of the TPP in 2016 sensibly recommended that all such agreements should be made subject to independent analysis. That follows the same recommendation from the 2015 report of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade References Committee and the same recommendation was subsequently made by the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth last year. All those recommendations have been rejected and, on that basis, the call at the end of this motion further parliament to work cooperatively in pursuit of really is a bit rich. If the government ignores the JSCOT and rejects out of hand recommendations from two separate committees on which it has a majority of members, it is more than a bit ridiculous for this motion to suggest that it is parliament that needs to be cooperative.

It does no one any good to have trade and investment agreements considered in an atmosphere of simplistic and sloganeering self-congratulation. Over and over, coalition members and ministers have talked about prospective agreements in laughably misleading terms. Trade agreements have been yoked willy-nilly onto the jobs-and-growth wagon, which is only understandable to the extent that the government is otherwise without a clear economic plan. The marketing job on the TPP 11 has been improved to the extent that the government is now making reference to one piece of outside analysis but the publication in question is little more than a working paper from a US based institute. Its analysis is not Australia's specific and the projected benefits are very small indeed, with an increase to national income over the next 12 use of half of one percent.

One thing we know is that trade agreements entered into from our position as a developed high-wage economy don't do much to create jobs. Not surprisingly, the analysis of the full TPP agreement by Tufts University as part of a World Bank study showed that deal would result in the loss of 39,000 jobs over the first decade. The TPP 11 removes labour market testing for workers brought into Australia under contractual service arrangements and that is in relation to 400 professions on the temporary skills shortage list. Anyone who thinks the weakening of our temporary foreign labour system won't impact on Australian jobs, pay and conditions is Kidding themselves.

The pursuit of a genuinely multilateral free and fair trade framework should be a means by which we can advance the economic and social wellbeing of the Australian community while contributing to stable shared and sustainable prosperity across the globe; this is not it.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to congratulate the member for Forde for moving this motion which follows the table government's leading role in bringing the Trans Pacific Partnership to fruition. Free trade agreements such as this are of seminal importance for Australia, which is why the coalition government has made trade such a successful priority. Our efforts have seen high-quality free trade agreements concluded with Korea, Japan, China and Peru, and TPP 11 is an important addition to the expanding opportunities for our exporting businesses.

At a time when we've seen populist and protectionist movements around the world question the value of free trade and indeed the openness of the global economy itself, I want to reaffirm my own strong belief that the case for free trade remains overwhelming. Free trade makes sense. It makes sense economically, it makes sense socially, it makes sense in alleviating poverty and it makes sense in bringing nations closer together. And it also makes sense for an economy like our own, which has always been strongest when our export sector is doing well. Australia currently has 10 free trade agreements in place and it is no accident that the countries involved in these agreements account for 67 per cent of our total trade. Our major free trade agreements with China and the United States of America, the world's two largest economies, demonstrates those economic benefits.

Since the agreement with the United States came into force over a decade ago, the amount of two-way investment has almost tripled, and the free trade agreement with China has also delivered clear benefits. Australian exports to China grew by 25 percent last year alone to reach $110 billion, with Australian service exports, which are particularly relevant to my own electorate, hitting a record $14.7 billion. Our free trade agreements help Australian workers and businesses. They are creating more jobs for Australians.

Free trade and a more open global economy are also providing benefits beyond our shores. No action by national governments has had a more profound effect on reducing global poverty than free trade. A combined study by the World Trade Organization and the World Bank in 2015 showed that, as developing countries engaged in more trade, the number of their citizens living in extreme poverty declined dramatically. In 2015 fewer than one billion people in the developing world lived in absolute poverty. That's around 15 per cent of the world population—still way too high—yet in 1981 that number was 1.9 billion people nearly half of the world's population at the time. The greatest fall in this number has been in the last 15 years, coinciding not accidentally with the increase in the developing world's engagement in trade.

In 2000 the developing world's share of world trade was 33 per cent. In 2015 it stood at 48 per cent. This has mirrored the growth in trade since the end of World War II globally. In 1950 the export of goods accounted for just eight per cent of global GDP, and today that figure stands at somewhere around 20 per cent.

The benefits of free trade are global but provide particular opportunities for Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership will be no exception. TPP-11 will create new jobs as it improves trade opportunities across a free trade zone that stretches from Malaysia to Chile. The agreement will eliminate more than 98 per cent of tariffs among nations which have a combined GDP of something like $13.7 trillion. For Australia the TPP creates our first free trade agreements with Canada and Mexico and continues our efforts to strengthen trading relations with Latin America.

Much has been said about the benefits of TPP-11 for our agriculture sector, be it the new opportunities for beef and dairy products in Japan or farming sectors like rice, sugar, seafood, wine and lamb. In my electorate, where it's fair to say beef production is not one of our major industries, the TPP will deliver considerable benefits to those export firms working in the service sectors. Accounting, management, consulting, architecture, education, health and ICT will all benefit through better access to government procurement service contracts in TPP nations.

Many doubted whether the TPP could be achieved following the withdrawal of the United States. Indeed, those in the Labor Party who sit opposite almost gleefully gave the TPP its last rites, and I remember the Leader of the Opposition describing it as a dead agreement. Yet through the leadership of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Australia will now be the beneficiary of this landmark agreement. I commend them for their success and I commend this motion to the House.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was quite a substantive speech. It went on for a very long time, and I think the member for North Sydney, who claims he doesn't—

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar is reflecting on other members and quite unparliamentary!

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was just about to say the member for North Sydney has plenty of meat production in his area!

Anyway, free trade is a cornerstone of the liberal tradition in Australia. It allows Australians to have access to a wide range of goods and services that would otherwise be unattainable for the average consumer. It allows Australians to project their business and professional expertise across borders. In short, it allows Australians to thrive unencumbered by the constraints of protectionism that those opposite would introduce if they were given the chance. There has been no greater force in pulling people out of poverty than free trade. There has been no greater deterrent to war and conflict than free trade. It was the postwar regime of free trade and open markets that saw European nations rise from the rubble of war and re-emerge as competitive economies. It is free trade that will help to sustain our economy into the future and ensure that Australians have the means to succeed in a free and democratic country.

The government has a mandate to secure the economic future of our great country. As part of this commitment, we must continue to seek out and find new trade agreements that enable our nation to provide a better future for its people but, more importantly, a better world for all of us to live in. After all, it is this commitment that has helped to fuel over 26 years of uninterrupted economic growth.

What I love about this particular free trade agreement is that it was not only opposed by Labor but dismissed by them. The Leader of the Opposition said:

Ever since Donald Trump got elected back in November, Mr Turnbull should have realised that the Trans-Pacific Partnership was dead.

'Well, the TPP's dead,' he said. In the words of Mark Twain, these reports were 'greatly exaggerated'. I think we call this an 'oops' moment. I would say the Leader of the Opposition has egg on his face, but I'm starting to think that he actually enjoys it, so I don't want to encourage more of it.

But let us take a moment to look at what the free trade agreement, which the Leader of the Opposition was so keen to walk away from, is going to bring Australians. The TPP-11 will eliminate more than 98 per cent of tariffs in a trade zone with a combined GDP of $13.7 trillion, and the countries included in this trade agreement are the fastest-growing in the world. It was complicated and difficult. In total, it represents 18 new free trade agreements. The $88 billion that we currently export to these countries is now set to grow and grow significantly. This, in turn, will increase jobs and increase wages.

So once again the Liberal Party are not just talking the talk; we are walking the walk. The text of the agreement has been published and is publicly available. The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties will examine the agreement and then legislation will need to be introduced, at which time we will get to see if Labor is willing to stop believing in unicorns and support this once-in-a-generation agreement. We will see if Labor and the Australian Conservatives will support accelerated reductions in Japan's tariffs on beef, where Australian currently exports $2 billion—many of the people affected by that live in the member for North Sydney's electorate. We will see if Labor and the Australian Conservatives will support the elimination of cheese tariffs into Japan, worth another $100 million in trade. We will see if Labor and the Australian Conservatives support quota reductions for wheat and rice to Japan and sugar to Japan, Canada and Mexico. Will Labor and the Australian Conservatives support elimination of all tariffs on sheepmeat, cotton, wool, seafood, horticulture, wine and industrial products?

Before they start on the excuses, let us be clear: Australia does not need to change one line of intellectual property law, which has embedded in it protections for areas such as biosecurity, health policy and environment policy. As for the labour market testing, let us be equally clear: this agreement will overwhelmingly benefit Australia as services become our fastest-growing exports. But Labor and the Australian Conservatives are bolted onto the past and do not understand a modern economy. I guess this is why they were unable to conclude a single free trade agreement and Australians had to wait for us to do the job. Those opposite were in power for six very long years, and all they had to show for it is a string of debt and unpaid bills. Not a single substantive reform or long-lasting benefit was delivered to this country in that time.

If you are worried about cost-of-living issues, then free trade is one solution to rising prices. If you want more jobs, then look to free trade. If you want better-paying jobs, look no further than free trade. If you want to help people out of poverty, both here and around the globe, I humbly suggest that you have a closer look at free trade.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to add my voice to those congratulating the government on the completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is a historic achievement for our nation. It reinforces this government's commitment to a strong and diverse economy. Unlike the pessimists on the other side of this chamber, we refused to let this opportunity die in the water when the United States withdrew its support.

I stand here today acutely aware of what this agreement means for Australian families. I come from Western Australia, where the export sector is a powerhouse of the economy. My brother and I ran a small business in Katanning for years. We developed our family farm into a successful enterprise, but we endured tough times along the way. Australian businesses look to the government for leadership. It's our responsibility to create a climate that allows those businesses to thrive. For export giants like Western Australia, we need to help our industries access new markets and expand. That's how we create more jobs, strengthen the economy and deliver higher wages to Australians. One of the most resounding endorsements of the TPP comes from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Their modelling indicates that this agreement will boost Australia's national income by 0.5 per cent and our exports by four per cent. That's more than $15 billion in additional income and more than $30 billion in additional exports.

My electorate of O'Connor is one of the most economically diverse regions in the country. It's also an electorate renowned for its production. A very significant proportion of WA's commodity exports originate in O'Connor. The key to job and wage growth for many of my constituents is helping those industries become more competitive in overseas markets. That's exactly what the TPP does for Australian businesses. Within the free-trade zone, 98 per cent of tariffs will disappear under this agreement.

In my electorate the most significant changes are the removal of all tariffs on sheepmeat, wool, seafood, horticulture and wine; new reductions in Japan's tariff on beef—Australian beef exports hit $2 billion in the last financial year—and new access for dairy products in Japan, Canada and Mexico; and tariff reductions for cereals and grains into Japan. These are huge benefits for Australian farmers in this agreement. We know it, and the industry knows it. Tony Mahar, Chief Executive of the National Farmers' Federation, said this week:

The CPTPP is a regional free trade agreement of unprecedented scope and ambition. It has great potential to drive job-creating growth across the Australian economy.

He said:

Ultimately, this will make Australian food and fibre products more competitive in the global market.

As the federal MP representing the Western Australian Goldfields, I'm also proud to say that we're minimising regulatory risks for our service exporters. In Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the goldmining capital of Western Australia, some of the local businesses are world leaders in mining technology and equipment. Under the TPP, energy sector reforms in Mexico and Vietnam will help those Kalgoorlie businesses be more competitive in those markets.

The government has taken a lead role in developing the TPP. We knew it would benefit Australians by boosting national income and creating jobs. We've seen the results of our other free trade agreements, particularly with China. Over a nine-month period last year, trade growth was astounding when compared to data for the years before the ChAFTA came into force. Bottled wine exports grew 129 per cent to $498 million. Abalone exports rose 385 per cent to $39.8 million, and some major producers from Esperance, in my electorate, are reaping these benefits. Hay and chaff exports rose by 64 per cent, and Chinese imports of unwrought nickel almost tripled to $240 million, which is fantastic news for the nickel miners in the Goldfields.

There's no doubt that free trade makes our economy stronger, and that's why this government is so committed to being a world leader in this space. Last year I attended a free-trade seminar in Albany, in my electorate. One of the great success stories from my electorate comes from Fletcher International Exports. Fletcher's are a family owned exporter of lamb and sheepmeat, and they have processing facilities based in Albany. Before ChAFTA, tariffs on sheepmeat in China were 15 per cent. Now they are at 8.3 per cent and reducing to zero. Greg Cross, Fletcher's WA general manager, said: 'The FTAs have had a massive impact on our company. We need to be looking at more opportunities. Having these FTAs, and more, with these countries gives us that opportunity to expand.'

This government is backing Australian companies like Fletcher's. We're helping them become leaders on the world stage. I want to see the businesses in my electorate rewarded for their courage and investment. I've got no doubt that the TPP is going to make our economy stronger and Australian businesses more competitive. I want to thank the Prime Minister and the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Steve Ciobo, for making this agreement happen and for the benefits that will flow to my constituents. Now's the time for this parliament to embrace the agreement and work with us to get the best result for Australian businesses.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13:18 to 16:00