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

I am sorry. I had been distracted—and I did say that. You do have to look at the record of the coalition, though. With the unemployment rate increasing under the coalition government, it is important to ensure that trade agreements support rather than replace local employment. This continues to be a fundamental premise of the Labor Party. We support Australian opportunities in Australia, we support skilled Australian workers and we support, and continue to support, programs that allow temporary skilled migration—but it is about filling skilled shortages, where employers cannot find local workers to fill vacancies.

Labor's safeguards are about ensuring that that is the system that we have in place and that the China free trade agreement, when it enters into force at the earliest opportunity, allows Australian exporters to realise the benefits of the agreement while also ensuring local jobs are supported. That is what Labor stands for. In short, Labor will support ChAFTA and Australia's economic engagement with China while making improvements to support local jobs, maintaining workplace skills and safety standards and deterring exploitation of overseas workers.