Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to ensure trade impediments do not stand in the way of the agriculture industry achieving its ambition of $100 billion by 2030?

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Gilmore for her question. She is a great regional MP who understands just how important our agriculture sector is to the nation's economy. Of course the Albanese Labor government continues to back our agriculture sector. We know how important it is to ensure that our farmers, our processors and our exporters have the best possible access through the removal of trade impediments imposed by our trading partners while restoring the relationships with trading partners that the Liberals and Nationals frankly spent a decade trashing.

The announcement on Friday that China will remove the 80.5 per cent anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley represents years—

The shadow might like to listen. This represents years of hard work from Australian government officials and industry. Australia has successfully use of the rules based World Trade Organization dispute settlement system to respond to, resolve and address these issues. We welcome China's decision to remove duties on Australian barley and have made clear to China we expect a similar process to be followed to remove duties on Australian wine. We are confident of a positive outcome.

Since coming to office, the Albanese government has been working hard to stabilise our relationship with our country's largest trading partner. China's decision to remove duties on barley is the latest in a series of decisions we have been able to secure from China to remove trade impediments on our agricultural products. Already, over the past couple of months, we have managed to successfully negotiate the removal of impediments on cotton, timber products and horticultural products—something I would have thought those officers would be welcoming. This is a feat that they could not achieve when they were in government. While the decision on barley is welcome, there are a number of products—in particular, wine and beef—that are still subject to impediments. We will continue to work hard to stabilise the relationships with trading partners.

The Albanese Labor government is steadfast in its support of industry's ambition of $100 billion by 2030, evident in the significant market access wins secured since we came to office. Last year alone we recorded 107 market access achievements where access was established, improved or restored, and that is worth over $5.4 billion to our agricultural sector. We will continue to work hard to pursue Australia's interests on behalf of the agriculture sector to ensure that we have the best possible international access.