Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that protection, Deputy President. If I recall, Senator Farrell was answering a question from Senator O'Sullivan around the CPTPP. I'm assuming you were following the news, good senator. I'm sure Senator Farrell even singled you out, because if you had been listening to the news reports you would have learned that, apart from the Prime Minister being over in China, Senator Farrell himself was there recently and had to come back here to Canberra.

On that note, on the CPTPP, the government's approach has been calm and consistent. The PM and the trade minister have done an excellent job in ensuring that we have been stabilising our relationship with one of our largest trade partners. The PM's visit to China is the first since 2016, and it marked the 50th anniversary of former Prime Minister Whitlam's visit. But trade impediments are the reason that Senator Farrell was over there boosting our exports and trying to convince the Chinese government that, when it comes to trade in barley, coal, cotton, copper ore, concrete, wine and lobsters, we need to have a stabilised relationship so that Australian producers can continue to export some of the world's best and prime products.

There was another matter raised in question time, and that related to the cost of living. The government has already announced 10 major reforms: electricity bill relief, cheaper child care, increased rent assistance, more Medicare bulk-billing, cheaper medicines, boosting income support payments, fee-free TAFE training, building more affordable homes, expanding parental leave, and creating jobs and getting wages moving again. We know that it's in the DNA of those opposite to ensure that wages keep going down and productivity keeps going down. They are not on the side of working people.