Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I certainly will stand up for Australian farmers—and manufacturers, wine producers, barley producers, meat producers, crayfish producers, all the people that you failed to look after over the last nine years. What a disgrace. We lost those markets. The sorts of farmers that Senator Brockman is talking about on the Eyre Peninsula or the Yorke Peninsula—they make amazing products, and we are going to look after them. And I can assure Senator Brockman that, in every single free trade agreement that we enter into, we will ensure the interests of our farmers are protected in a way that was never done—that was never, ever done—by the former government in the last nine years.

Now, I can tell you a few things about this, Senator Brockman. This opposition, when they were in government, negotiated a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom which would have very significantly benefited both farmers in your state, Senator Brockman, and farmers in my state. What happened? That was negotiated last December. There are requirements under our legislation to implement those free trade agreements—