Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave of the Senate to continue my remarks on my motion to take note of a ministerial statement made last week by the Minister representing the Minister for Trade. You might recall that the then minister on duty refused leave but then said, ‘Yes, you can have it for three minutes.’ The Manager of Government Business, Senator Ludwig, later approached me and said: ‘That shouldn’t have happened; it was a mistake. You seek leave to finish your 10 minutes and we’ll give it.’ I am seeking that leave now. I can indicate I will be about five minutes.

Leave granted.

I did want to comment on the ministerial statement on trade, not directly on the point of the statement that the minister made, but on other matters relating to trade. In the three minutes that I was allowed to have previously, I mentioned the Export Market Development Grants Scheme. I did not have the opportunity then to develop the comments that I wanted to make. What I wanted to say then, and I will say it now, is that the Export Market Development Grants Scheme is of enormous interest and assistance to Australian exporters, particularly smaller exporters, who export overseas. It is of particular interest to me because many people in the north of Queensland, where I come from, get EMD grants for tourism related activities, which very much helps our tourism activities in these difficult financial days.

In our last round of estimates committee hearings, I was told by officials that the Minister for Trade, Mr Crean, was going to make a major statement on the EMDG Scheme by the end of November. I surmised at estimates that he might be responding to the Mortimer report into the Export Market Development Grants Scheme. I surmised that he intended to give the government’s response to the report. We have established through estimates that, this year, the Export Market Development Grants Scheme is underfunded by about $50 million. That has all come out at estimates. It was implied to me at estimates that Mr Crean would be addressing this issue, by giving the government’s response to the Mortimer report, in the major statement that he was going to make at the end of November. Mr Acting Deputy President, you would be aware that the end of November has come and gone. You may not be aware, however, as I was, that Mr Crean had been booked to give a major address to the National Press Club on 26 November and that, with two or three days notice, that speech to the Press Club was cancelled. I was very concerned about this, because we still do not have a government response to the report from Mr Mortimer on the Export Market Development Grants Scheme.

Recently I have received, on very good authority, confirmation of information I had previously received that cabinet had considered Mr Crean’s submission in relation to the Export Market Development Grants Scheme. I understand, although of course I am not privy to cabinet documents, that Mr Crean was keen to put another $50 million into the scheme to make sure there would not be a shortfall in this current year. Applications for the EMDG Scheme close very shortly. I understand that Mr Crean’s submission to cabinet had been rejected and that he had sought an increase in funding for the Export Market Development Grants Scheme but he had been rolled by the Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, and the Treasurer, Mr Swan, in cabinet. That flat rejection, I am told, was because the proposal involved a spending increase. I hope that my information is incorrect and I hope that at some time one of the Labor ministers might tell me: ‘No, that’s not true. We’re going to fund the EMDG Scheme. Mr Crean wasn’t rolled. There’s extra money to come for it.’ I say that because the scheme is so very vital, so very important, to exporters right throughout Australia.

If it is the case that the government is squibbing on its response to the Mortimer report because Mr Crean has not been able to get a response that is acceptable to cabinet then this is a very dark day—in fact, a very black day—for Australian exporters. Australian exporters have been doing it tough. We are in difficult financial times. The Rudd government is throwing money around willy-nilly in every other way and has made it clear in recent days that the $22 billion surplus will shortly become a deficit. But there does not seem to have been any money for this scheme, which helps exporters, helps bring in overseas dollars into our economy and helps to employ hundreds of thousands of people in the industries that benefit. As I have said, my particular interest is in the tourism industry of central-north and Far North Queensland, which employs hundreds of thousands of people. It has a lot of innovative market programs and a lot of proposals to increase exports with the assistance of the EMDG Scheme. I would be desperately sorry—and so would the industry be and so would Australia be—if the Labor Party have axed that program in the same way they have axed the Commercial Ready program and other programs. I desperately await Mr Crean’s advice that the Export Market Development Grants Scheme will be continued and will be funded this year so that everyone is able to access it appropriately. I thank the Senate for allowing me to have this additional five minutes to complete my remarks on what I consider to be a very important issue for exporters in our country.

Question agreed to.