Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Some others that do not have a plan—if we want to get under their skin—are the Newman government in my home state of Queensland. We have seen the impact that that can have on the economy. Business confidence and investment and trade opportunities for Queenslanders can slump. The unemployment rate today in Queensland is 6.8 per cent. That is right—6.8 per cent. When Labor was in government, it was 5.4 per cent. That does rouse the opposition, but what are they doing to assist exporters in sugar and other industries to ensure that they have opportunities in Queensland, to create jobs and to ensure that we have great export markets into Japan, other than just whinge from the sideline? That seems to be their major way of progressing the issue.

Let me deal with some of the key benefits of implementing the agreement. We have a first-mover's advantage. Australia has secured preferential market access for some of its goods and services ahead of any other country. This preferential access, coupled with Australia's clean, green image and reliable supplier status, will result in increased exports to Japan, and they should grow over time as these tariff barriers come down. I just hope that this government remains focused on ensuring that technical and market access issues are dealt with quickly and in the right way to ensure trade continues to grow.

The joint standing committee, as I referred to, provided a unanimous report, with no additional comments or dissent, because of the significance that Japan has to Australia. The report provided a balanced view on the benefits, as well as—and I have touched on these—the suboptimal outcomes and the regulatory complexity that could be a barrier to trade. Importantly, multiple parties support this agreement—including the National Party in Queensland, because of sugar, I suspect. They can explain to that industry what happened, and they can then clearly indicate to beef and the remaining agricultural industries that there has been a good outcome by this Liberal government federally. But, if I want to go back, the work started in 2007 under Labor. I visited Japan to push for an agreement and a reduction in tariff barriers for agriculture. Why? Because I recognise the importance of Japan to agriculture, both in Queensland and nationally. It has been difficult across the divide, particularly in agriculture, to get our countries focused on ensuring that we could reduce those tariff barriers.

Turning to some of the important parts of this agreement and the subsequent amendments, the tariff amendments bill will ensure that the customs duty rates applied by Australian Customs to Japanese goods will be in accordance with the preferential rates and phasing-out periods agreed to in the agreement. It will provide rules and procedures to identify and certify Japanese goods that qualify for preferential tariff rates and related matters, and it will ensure that the operative amendments come into force on the day of the agreement so that agricultural products and industries can benefit from this agreement in the first part of 2015.