Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection, Senator Whish-Wilson: why did we leave out the US free trade agreement? Because we did not need it with the US. We on this side believe we should evaluate these things on a case-by-case basis. Oils ain't oils, Senator Whish-Wilson; through you Mr Deputy President. We should evaluate these things as we see fit. We do not need it with the US because both Australia and the United States have very strong protections against property rights. There was no need for it. So let us look at it on a case-by-case basis. Before I was interrupted, I was talking about foreign direct investment. In 1959, the global stock of FDI was just US$60 billion—not a lot of money at all in the context of the world economy. But today it exceeds $25 trillion. That is a massive growth, and it is a very important growth because it has allowed, particularly, countries which are poorer and which lack capital to access capital from overseas countries. And one of the reasons it has been allowed to grow is thanks to these investment treaties, because they give investors—largely in developed countries, because that is where the capital is—the protection and the rights to make sure that it is—