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

It started when the UK government completed their side of the arrangement. I have to say, that did take longer than they would have liked, and it certainly took longer than we would have liked. In fact, I can tell you this, Senator Duniam: on the first day I was appointed to this job, I was invited by the British High Commissioner to come around for a chat about it. I committed the Australian government to complete this process, which the former government had failed to do, in the shortest possible time available under our legislation and do all of the things that needed to be done, and we did it. We did it in that time frame. Ultimately, the delay in starting the agreement ended up being on the other side of the world. You might recall that there was quite a bit of opposition within the UK to the agreement, so it took them a little bit longer to massage it through their processes. But it started, and, of course, we're now getting the benefit of all the things that flow from that agreement.

An opposition senator interjecting—

If you like, I can start talking about the India free trade agreement and your failure to get that through the processes that were required. We started both those processes—India and the UK—on the same day. We were fortunate that we were able to get the cooperation of the Indian government. I kept Minister Goyal briefed on where we were up to— (Time expired)