George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House how the Morrison-McCormack government is creating prosperity for farmers and regional communities in Australia through the latest free trade agreement with Indonesia?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Trade means jobs and more trade equals more jobs, and no-one knows that better than the member for Dawson. He knows that in his electorate, in and around Mackay, they rely on trade. They rely on jobs. When you have good trade relations you've got more jobs—more local jobs, more jobs for Central and North Queensland, more jobs for regional Australia.

It's been an eventful month. Certainly we welcomed President Widodo today with his fine, historic speech talking about trade, talking about jobs and talking about collaboration and cooperation. This month in Jakarta the official opening will take place of a Ship Safety Inspection Centre of Excellence. That's going to provide training for Indonesian port state control and flag state control officers. As well, there will be the official launch of a Solid Bulk Cargoes Testing and Training Facility, which will help Indonesia with implementation of best practice carriage of solid bulk cargoes. I welcome the cooperation that's going on between the Indonesian Directorate-General of Sea Transportation and AMSA here in Australia, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Importantly, I had a very good discussion over lunch with the Transportation Minister of Indonesia, Mr Sumadi, about what we can do even more to ensure that, yes, our trade relations are good, but let's increase the $18 billion of two-way trade that we do between our two nations.

The Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement is vital to our success and vital to the success of the member for Dawson's sugarcane industry. Indeed, everything that they grow and make in Dawson, in and around Mackay, is going to benefit from our relations with Indonesia. Paul Schembri, chair of Canegrowers, said:

The change in tariff from an effective 8% to 5% puts us on a par with our competitors in that market and provides the opportunity to increase our exports to Indonesia from their present level of 350,000 tonnes to more than 1 million tonnes.

That will be very beneficial for the canegrowers, those hard workers from North and Central Queensland and elsewhere in the fine Sunshine State. More than 99 per cent of Australian goods exports by value to Indonesia will enter duty free or under significantly improved preferential arrangements under the new deal, and that is significant. Take the Australian Food and Grocery Council's CEO Tanya Barden's comments in relation to this agreement. Late last year, she said:

Providing access to export markets with improved trading arrangements enables favourable conditions to expand the business, thereby giving confidence to invest domestically, leading to increased employment …

And that's what we want to see. We're a government of lower taxation, more jobs, more trade and good economic conditions with our neighbours.