Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question. I note that Senator Reynolds is a senator from the state of Western Australia, 45 per cent of whose exports go to China, a vital source for job creation and wealth creation in Western Australia.

Last November before the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement was even revealed, we had the ACTU President saying: 'So the Chinese do a deal. They say, "We want to build a mine. We're going to use our labourers, we might ship in our food, we bring in all our products—you know, we make sure we actually have a fence around," so immediately you'd lock out maybe thousands. We don't even know if the Chinese labourers will be allowed out of the compound at all.' Later on Ms Kearney went on another radio station and said: 'If they bring in their own supplies and their own goods for those projects from China then our Australian manufacturers miss out and all the workers that make Australian goods lose their jobs and miss out. It is a knock-on effect which could be really terrible for our economy.'

That was all simply untrue and shamefully said to whip up hysteria. Yet pangs of conscience did finally get to Ms Kearney when she had to admit—and listen to this—'It's very difficult not to sound xenophobic in this situation.' I wonder why? Because it is xenophobic. Having so recklessly overegged their opposition to the unseen China free trade agreement, resort was had to xenophobia and stereotyping by the ACTU—a campaign specifically rejected by 21 years of ACTU presidents. It is time for Labor to—(Time expired)