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

This is actually a very important issue, and it is one that does need to be debated and argued across the Australian community in a responsible fashion, which is why I am actually going out of my way to give you a very genuine answer, Senator Whish-Wilson. The point here is this: we will only pursue free trade agreements that are in the national interest. We will only pursue free trade agreements that help us strengthen our economy and create jobs.

In relation to investor-state dispute settlement clauses, what we have said very clearly, what Minister Robb—who achieved outstanding success with Korea the other week, success that the previous government was not able to achieve during six years in government—has said very clearly is that we will only consider inclusion of those sorts of clauses on a case-by-case basis where, as part of an overall package, we consider the overall package to be in the national interest.