Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I will not be wasting the House’s time to present a ministerial statement which contains absolutely nothing. The ministerial statement contained a great little history lesson on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum but not much else. It is the usual from the Minister for Trade: a history lesson about what the Labor Party does, never acknowledging—unlike when we were in government—what its predecessors had done. We certainly acknowledged the work that Bob Hawke did, when he was Prime Minister, in establishing APEC. We acknowledged the fact that it was a Labor government who initially set APEC on its course. We supported that. We are of course interested in what that past Prime Minister and his successor both think of the APEC alternative put up by the current Prime Minister, and I will come to that later.

I would have thought that, in a ministerial statement to the House six months into his term—and getting on to seven months—the Minister for Trade would actually be able to say something substantial other than just giving us a history lesson, firing a few political barbs—

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