Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to China, which took place on 26 June to 1 July 2017. I seek leave to move a motion to take note of the document.

Leave granted.

I move

That the Senate take note of the document.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

I was very privileged to have the opportunity to travel to China as part of a cross-party delegation, along with my colleague Senator Smith, who I think will speak on this shortly as well. This was a delegation that took place for about five days in June-July, led by the Speaker, Mr Tony Smith. The main purpose of the delegation was a continuation of a parliamentary dialogue that has been underway between the Australian and Chinese parliaments for a number of years now.

As someone who had not previously been to China, this was obviously a fascinating experience. It was only a brief delegation, and it only managed to visit Beijing and Shanghai, but, as I had been forewarned by many people who have travelled to China, the scale of development that you see when visiting these cities is quite astonishing.

I think, if you speak to any foreign policy expert in Australia, pretty much everyone recognises that there is no country that is going to be more vital to the shaping of our region in the years ahead than China, so this delegation was a very important opportunity for Australian parliamentarians to get a better understanding of some of the issues between our two nations, some of the issues that we will need to work on together, and to get a sense of what the Chinese government and Chinese people see as priorities for their relationship with our country.

As usually occurs in these delegations, the delegation did have a number of different meetings that spanned business, trade, politics and culture. We learnt a lot from the experience through a variety of meetings with representatives of the Chinese government, including the third-most senior member of the Chinese government, who is the chair of the National People's Congress. We also had some extremely interesting meetings with Chinese businesses, including one business that I will single out—JD.com—that I've been describing as a Chinese version of Amazon. It is quite remarkable to see the scale of operations of online retail and the services sector in China going forward.

As I mentioned, the key focus of this delegation was the sixth meeting of the China-Australia bilateral parliamentary exchange, where we had an opportunity to meet our counterparts in the Chinese parliament and discuss issues of mutual interest, ranging from foreign policy and security to trade, law and justice issues. Clearly, from the number of times that it was raised during this delegation, the Chinese government's initiative—the Belt and Road Initiative—is an extremely high priority for the Chinese people and the Chinese government. I know that the Australian government has shown some interest in participating in this initiative, through the attendance of Minister Ciobo at a conference concerning it earlier this year.

That is one example of the immense opportunities that still lie ahead for Australian businesses and Australian workers through deeper engagement with China. Obviously there are many Australian businesses that have already taken advantage of these opportunities, and I think it's probably a little bit tempting at times to wonder whether we've already seen the peak of China's development and the peak of the economic opportunities. But I certainly left this delegation very much convinced that we've only really seen the beginning.

As a Queensland senator, one of the things that I have been thinking about—both during this delegation and subsequently—is that my own home state has done very well from the boom in China over recent years, when we think about commodity exports, whether they be coal, other minerals, or agricultural products. I think it's very important that all Australian governments, whether we're talking about the Commonwealth government or our state governments, including my own in Queensland, really apply themselves to thinking about how we can take advantage of the incredible growth that lies ahead in Chinese consumption.

As I said, the business that we visited, JD.com, really gave an indication of the kind of trade in services and products that is still available. As we see the continued growth in China, I want to make sure that businesses in my own home state are adequately geared up to take advantage of these opportunities. We're already doing some great work in increasing the number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia and the number of students from China who are visiting and being educated in Australia. But there are a lot more opportunities ahead, and I want to make sure we're all focusing on them.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to follow Senator Watt. I also participated in the Australian parliamentary delegation to China, and in the very, very few moments available to me, I would like to reflect on what an insightful and important visit it was. It comes at a critical time, but not just for my state's development—of course, the modern prosperity of Western Australia has been well and truly built on the back of Chinese growth, but, more importantly, our agricultural sector enjoys great prosperity as a result of strong trade between Western Australian agriculturalists and China.

Of course, it comes at a very important time because the geopolitical landscape is changing. As a nation, we must be prepared to manage what will be difficult and complex issues in regard to our relationship with China. Close and particular attention on managing human rights issues both inside China and between China and its neighbours is a critical issue for me and, I know, for other senators in this place. In conclusion, can I just thank Senator—

Debate interrupted.