Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

One in five Australian jobs is dependent upon trade related employment. Whether it's across Senator Abetz's home state of Tasmania or my state of South Australia or any part of our great country, there are so many Australians who rely upon trade and market access to sustain their employment and their jobs. It's estimated that, through our trade growth over recent years, more than 240,000 trade related jobs have been created across Australia. And, despite the challenges of the pandemic, we have seen trade volumes hold up very strongly in so many of our key markets. We know there are more Australian businesses exporting and we know from analysis that Australian household incomes are higher as a result of those trading relationships. This is all about making sure that we continue to post the record trade surpluses we have off the back of record exports and, in doing so, create more job opportunities for people right across Australia.