Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Customs Amendment (China-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation) Bill 2015 and the Customs Tariff Amendment (China-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation) Bill 2015. In doing so, I reinforce Labor's support for the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. This agreement has been in the making for the last decade and will deliver significant benefits to our Australian exporters, to Australian consumers and, importantly, to Australian workers. I am pleased that the government has agreed to Labor's amendments which will ensure that this legislation goes through with safeguards to put in place protection for Australian jobs.

I would like to acknowledge at this point the leader of the opposition in this chamber, Senator Penny Wong, for her leadership in negotiating, which, at times, I am sure, was quite difficult, on getting the Australian government to actually concede that Australian workers do in fact need protection. Nevertheless, she did a great job on behalf of the Labor Party and the Labor government in ensuring that Australian workers are protected.

But, as most of our contributors this morning have been saying, we are all in agreement that trade is essential to the Australian economy and essential for Australia's future. This is something that Labor has always understood, and Labor's amendments ensure that Australian jobs are protected and that Australian people get the first chance at any new jobs that are created. This is something that would not have happened without Labor standing up in defence of Australian workers.

Labor has always been engaged in trade liberalisation, and we have a very strong track record highlighting this. Our stance on trade liberalisation can be traced back to the 1940s, and it is something that we have pursued in government over the last four decades.

Both coalition and Labor governments have played their part in negotiations, but I think that any objective observer would agree that Labor governments have led the way on engagement with China. We have never needed to be given any lectures by those opposite on the importance of China.

I want to pay tribute to the Labor former trade ministers Simon Crean, Craig Emerson and Richard Marles for their role in progressing the negotiations. But I would also like to acknowledge and place on record our thanks to Minister Robb in bringing the negotiations to a conclusion. As Senator Penny Wong acknowledged in her contribution, it is also those within the departments of our bureaucracy who have worked tirelessly over a long period of time to ensure that the best negotiated agreement could be reached. And, as I said, it has only been made better and strengthened because Labor negotiated to ensure that Australian workers are protected.

Perhaps it had something to do with the government realising that they had dropped the ball on the issues that they came to the negotiating table and we finally had an agreement. But there is no doubt that the government could have, and should have, negotiated a better deal. Labor has led the way in arguing against investor-state dispute settlement provisions, and we do not believe the government should have included the ISDS provisions in the ChAFTA. Labor has improved the agreement, but there is still work to be done.

So the agreement may not be perfect—and I know there are still some in the community who have concerns—but it is a good start now. We have made significant provisions to ensure that the benefits do flow into the Australian community, and we need to weigh up the good and the bad and determine what is in the best interests of Australia—and that, of course, is to enter into this free trade agreement.

In my area of responsibility, of aged care, there are some wonderful opportunities for our Australian aged-care sector to lead the way in aged care in China. There are also added benefits to my home state of Tasmania, and already we see local government, through our councils, engaging in sister-city relationships with China, and they have been for quite some time. You would recall that recently the President of China visited Tasmania, in response, primarily, to a school in Launceston that had written to him and suggested that Tasmania would be a perfect place for him to visit when he came to Australia. So already we have increased numbers of Chinese visitors coming to our state, which is wonderful for our tourism industry because they understand the uniqueness of Tasmania in terms of our clean environment, wonderful food, open spaces and low population. And that is why Asians—those from China in particular—enjoy coming to Tasmania. That is something that we can still build upon. That is even without the exports that will be beneficial to our primary industry in Tasmania.

We are proud to support this agreement which now has been improved substantially by the safeguards that we were able to negotiate and for which we fought long and hard. Trade is vital for Australia's prosperity and growth into the future. Labor will always stand up for Australian workers. Without the leadership of the opposition in ensuring our workers were protected, this agreement would have left those in the Australian workforce at a disadvantage as to any new jobs that were going to be created. So this has been a fantastic outcome. This is what the Labor Party has always done: we have and will always put the best interests of the Australian community first, and we will always ensure that the best possible agreement can be put forward. I commend these two pieces of legislation.