Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Whish-Wilson for that question. The first point I would make is that I completely reject the assertion that we are going against Treasury advice. The government have a very simple commitment. Our commitment is to pursue policies that strengthen our economy and create jobs. To the extent that entering into free trade agreements helps us strengthen our economy and create jobs, we will pursue them; to the extent that it does not, we will not. That is a very, very simple equation.

I would make this more general observation: not having free trade agreements in place where the nations that we compete with do actually puts us at a serious disadvantage. If I can just take the free trade agreement that we agreed on with Korea last week as an example. The United States of America, who we compete with in that market, in particular in relation to agricultural products, was taking significant market share away from Australian farmers. Why? Because it was able to access that market at much superior conditions than Australian farmers. So the point—