James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Senator Birmingham. Can the minister outline the mutual benefits for farmers, businesses, investors and workers when the trade agreement with Indonesia comes into force?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Paterson for his question and his passionate advocacy for increasing trade access for Australian businesses and liberalising trade across the globe. A central pillar of Australia's deepening relationship with Indonesia is the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. We were thrilled that, late last week, just prior to President Widodo's visit to Australia, the Indonesian parliament did what the Australian parliament did late last year and provided support for that agreement which will enable its ratification and entry into force over the coming months.

This is an outstanding opportunity to finally and fully realise the potential of the economic relationship between Australia and Indonesia. As the Australia Indonesia Business Council president, Phil Turtle, said recently, IA-CEPA has been designed to deliver balanced outcomes for both countries and puts emphasis on cooperative initiatives. We want to work with Indonesia to build its economy and its skill base by supporting investment in genuine partnerships across sectors like education, meat, grains and elsewhere because, as Senator Payne has indicated already, a successful and stable Indonesia is central to and good for Australia and our region, as well as for Indonesia, of course.

There are multiple benefits from IA-CEPA across a range of sectors including the services industries; mining services; heath, hospital and aged care; education I've already mentioned; architecture; and engineering. There are enhanced opportunities into the Australian market for areas of ambition for Indonesia, such as the electric vehicle market, as well as opportunities in terms of enhanced work rights around working holiday makers, who make such a valuable contribution to our economy. Our agricultural, steel making and other sectors all gain significantly, whether it is access for 575,000 cattle, 500,000 tonnes of grain, around 455 semi loads of oranges—

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Birmingham. Senator Paterson, a supplementary question?

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the Minister advise the Senate what else the government is doing to build a more resilient economy and create opportunities in new markets for our exporters, tourism operators and international education providers to sustain jobs?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our government has always recognised that the more Australian farmers and businesses are able to access choice and diversity across the globe, the better it is for them to build their resilience, particularly in some of the challenging times that we face at present. That's why, as a government, we aggressively pursued trade opportunities with Japan, Korea, China and the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In line with the passage of the Indonesia agreement through this parliament, we welcomed the passage of the Hong Kong free trade agreement, which entered into force last month, on 17 January, which was acknowledged as being important for the insurance, banking and fintech sectors. I'm pleased to inform the Senate that the Peru agreement will come into force tomorrow, 11 February, and that has been recognised as opening up a level playing field for Australian mining, engineering and technological services companies and providing excellent opportunities across other services industries as well as in goods, wines, sheepmeat, kangaroo meat and other sectors which will all benefit from that diversification.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Paterson, a final supplementary question?

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister inform the Senate of other recent good news on the trade front?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Six years of creating new market access opportunities is delivering for Australia. ABS data last week showed Australia posted our largest-ever calendar year trade surplus in 2019. It was a trade surplus of $67.6 billion, fuelled by a record-breaking run of 24 consecutive monthly trade surpluses from Australia. You have to go back to 1972-73 to find the previous record. Indeed it is fuelled in part by exports of goods surging 13.4 per cent in 2019 over 2018 levels—resources up, manufacturing exports up, rural exports also up, notwithstanding drought conditions. Yearly services exports are also growing by 8.9 per cent, recognising the diversification of our economy and crossing the $100 billion mark for our services exports for the first time ever as we helped to charge all aspects of the Australian economy.