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

Can I thank Senator Bilyk for her wonderful interest not only in trade but in tourism in her wonderful home state of Tasmania, which I'll be visiting tomorrow, hopefully with her and some of our other great Tasmanian senators. This is a very important question that she's asked, and the Albanese Labor government is getting on with the job of diversifying our trade in important markets like India.

On 1 January 2023, the second tariff cut under the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement took effect. In the month of January, Australian businesses benefited from the tariff cuts on over $2.5 billion—I'll repeat that figure: $2.5 billion—worth of exports into India. This means more opportunities for our seafood, our meat, our fruits, our wine and our critical mineral exporters. It means cheaper products for Australian households, like groceries, fruit, nuts and clothing.

This deal has been a long time coming. Former prime minister Julia Gillard kicked off the trade negotiations in India over 10 years ago, and under the Anthony Albanese Labor government we finished the job.