Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the outset, I would like to make two preliminary points. First, I note that I'm following Senator Cox's first contribution in the chamber, so I'd like to congratulate Senator Cox on her election. I listened carefully to a thoughtful, articulate speech, which was certainly in keeping with the philosophy and the traditions of your fellow Greens members. Accordingly, I disagree with most of it, but I respect it. Second, I'd like to leap to the defence of my good friend Senator Payne, who was referred to by Senator Wong in her contribution. Senator Payne has done an absolutely outstanding job in terms of engaging with our Pacific family. I'll highlight two matters in particular: first, in terms of their response to COVID-19 pandemic and, second, with respect to the status of women in our Pacific Island family of nations. So I really do commend Senator Payne on her efforts in that regard. She's been a tireless foreign affairs minister and an outstanding one at that.

In relation to the bill before the chamber, the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Equity Investments and Other Measures) Bill 2021, from my perspective this is about opportunities. It's about opportunities for Australian businesses and Australian workers. It's about opportunities for the communities which will be positively impacted by projects which are provided finance by Export Finance Australia. Some of those communities are poor communities, communities which up to today haven't had the opportunities that we've had in Australia, and the finance provided by Export Finance Australia will help them tap into those opportunities for their communities and for their people. And it's about an opportunity for Australia to promote its strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region. So this bill is about opportunity.

There are five key points I'd like to address in my contribution on the bill. I say this as someone who has a reasonably long background in the mining industry: I have been involved in arranging finance or finance negotiations for projects in many offshore jurisdictions, including jurisdictions in South-East Asia and our Pacific region.

The first point is that the impact of Export Finance Australia and the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific being involved in a project is profound. It sends a message to many different stakeholders. It sends a message to other potential financiers, because of Australia's involvement through those agencies, that this is an opportunity which they should look at in terms of contributing finance to. It sends a message to equity investors that these are perhaps projects that should be invested in. It sends a message to all of our geopolitical stakeholders, and those with whom we engage, that we're interested in this region and we will assert our interests in the Indo-Pacific region. So it sends an important message and that message can translate into greater finance for a project, greater equity investment and greater opportunities to make the project a reality.

The second point is in relation to the type of finance. It is incredibly important that Export Finance Australia has the ability to be flexible with respect to the sort of finance which is contributed. That might be through direct advances of loan funds, but it needs to also be potentially through the provision of guarantees to address the point Senator Wong referred to—that in some countries the best approach is for a guarantee to be provided by an agency such as Export Finance Australia so that the lending is done by local finance providers in local currency. That's a real issue for some of our Pacific neighbours, in terms of currency, so I think that's a great benefit in terms of this legislation.

The third point is that this legislation provides flexibility in terms of equity investment. That is an important additional bow to add to the quiver. It is important that that flexibility is added but it is important that that is rarely done. I don't philosophically believe that the government should be a major investor in projects of this type. However, there will be a category of projects which are in the national interest—for example, in the critical minerals space—which on a very rare basis warrant an equity contribution from an agency such as Export Finance Australia.

The fourth point I want to raise is in relation to the Pacific step-up. I'm a passionate believer in the government's Pacific step-up policy. As someone who lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for about 2½ years I know how important our Pacific family is. And I know that Export Finance Australia, given this additional flexibility, will be able to do more good in our Pacific region and help bring projects to fruition.

The fifth and final point I want to make is that it's extraordinarily important that this legislation is passed in order to bring parity between Australia and some of our major trading partners—the USA, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan. Their export finance agencies have this flexibility. We need to also have this flexibility. We need parity in this respect. That's another important reason to support this legislation.

In conclusion, from my perspective this bill is about opportunity—opportunity for more jobs for Australians and greater opportunity for Australian businesses—and enabling communities in our Indo-Pacific region to translate opportunities into reality and for projects to be built which provide them with the employment opportunities and the infrastructure they need in order to progress.