Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a topic that interests the people who live in the electorate of Mallee, because we understand the value of infrastructure and we understand the value of trade. It was very interesting to hear the previous speaker talk extensively about how the opposition stand by this decision and, in fact, lament that they think we took a little long to get there. That particularly contrasts the discussion after question time, where there was so much rhetoric about the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. We are demonstrating to the Australian people that we believe in trade, as opposed to the Labor Party which are obviously against trade.

If you think about the products that are produced in my electorate, they provide a very interesting case study for this. In a good year, we produce $5.3 billion in exports out of the electorate of Mallee. If you went to Mildura, you would be shocked to see trains two kilometres long that are full of shipping containers full of horticultural products that are going straight into Asia. We have infrastructure constraints ourselves. It was very pleasing to see the announcement of the Murray Basin rail link infrastructure to take product from Mildura to the port. Of course, from there the product has to travel by boat and go through the South China Sea. That is an issue of defence; everything that goes through the South China Sea needs to go through safe waters. Then it needs to get to the port of the country that is receiving it.

What we have seen, particularly with the growing wealth in Asia, is that that wealth is now filtering its way out away from the capital cities in Asia. You might go to Jakarta. Traditionally, most of the wealth in Indonesia has been in Jakarta. With the rise of Indonesia, we see that wealth is filtering its way out. You might go to Shanghai, but we are also seeing that, as the inland cities of China develop, the infrastructure constraints to get the product that we produce in Australia to the consumer are a challenge. We also know that as standards of income increase so do the demands on food products. Deputy Speaker Broadbent, you will know that once a person goes from earning $2 a day to $5 a day their demand for protein in their diet substantially increases, their capacity to afford that increases, their standard of living and health increases, and child mortality decreases. So the infrastructure constraints that we find ourselves in in the Asia-Pacific region are our great challenge.

Australia's does sit within Asia. This is our great advantage. I was in Washington a number of weeks ago. I said to some of the American congressmen there that Australia sits in Asia. It had not actually dawned on them that Australia sits in Asia. That is a bit of a worry. It is probably no surprise that they have been a little bit reluctant to sign on to this, because they do not quite have the understanding of Asia that the Australian government and the Australian people have. If you think about the constraints in taking our product from the port inland into the Asian nations, they are going to need finance. This is what this legislation is all about. It is about providing finance to build the infrastructure so that the wealth that hits the port, the food that hits the port and the product that hits the port can make their way through to the general population.

I was in Jakarta last year. Indonesia has 250 million people and a rising economy, but there are still 100 million people who are living on $2 a day or less. I went out to Bandar Lampung and had a look at some of the feedlots there. I have to put on the record: having seen the feedlots in Indonesia, we should be very proud of Australia's contribution to lifting animal welfare and lifting live exports. The trucks that are transporting those live cattle have to travel down roads would normally take us two hours to travel in Australia, but it is taking the trucks eight hours simply because of the sheer lack of infrastructure in that city. For example, Jakarta is a parking lot after 5 o'clock rather than a town that you can get around. There is no real public transport. So access to finance through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will allow the governments and the builders in those areas to build infrastructure, which will go a long way towards addressing opportunities for us to get our product from the Mallee all the way to where the customer wants to take those products.

This also has a humanitarian bent to it because there is no doubt that, if you can get commerce into areas, you can also get medicine into areas. I will give an example. A number of weeks ago I was in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I travelled only four miles but, because of the state of the road, four miles was too far for children to be able to access education, four miles was a challenge for them to access medicines. Whilst this is part of commerce—and we can see this very much from the shallow perspective of how we ensure that we can get our products into the marketplace and to more customers and address the infrastructure constraints in Asia—this is also about being a good neighbour and also humanitarian needs. In opening up those roads, in opening up that infrastructure, you allow better access to medicines, you allow better access to doctors and you allow better access for more serious health cases to come down to the major hospitals in the capital cities. It really is about standing by the Asian countries as they seek to lift their standards of living through their hard work.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is, relatively speaking, a small cost to the Australian budget over a number of years. It will add up to roughly $932 million over a five-year period. That would make us the sixth largest shareholder and it would afford us the opportunity to tender for some of the projects that will need to be built. With the rise of Asia, there are great opportunities in protein products, mechanised starch products and counter-seasonal horticultural products. There are also great opportunities in the service industry—and that is something I think we have not captured enough. It has huge potential to create more jobs for Australians. So being a good neighbour ultimately translates into jobs.

I will take this opportunity to touch on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. It has been very popular in my electorate. We have heard a lot of rhetoric in this place that, somehow, people are going to be undercut in the wage market. But on Sunday, at the Robinvale Almond Festival, I was talking to people who were table grape growers. They cannot believe the opportunities and optimism that are out there simply because we have stitched up the Japan free trade agreement, the Korea free trade agreement and now, hopefully, the China free trade agreement. They want us to get it up and going quickly. If you talk to them, they say this is generating jobs—low-skill jobs and high-skill jobs—in areas where there has traditionally been high unemployment. And now it is getting to the point where it is about finding the people.

That is the interesting part about this. We on this side understand that growing the whole economy, growing the whole marketplace, ultimately grows opportunities for Australia. I think Australians get that and know it. Certainly, people in my electorate get that. They are probably shaking their heads at the moment over the Labor Party's discussions in this place about free trade agreements. Surely, we have learnt that lesson now; surely we have come to a point where we know that we are in Asia, that we have opportunities in Asia. We have infrastructure constraints that we want to address through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, but we want free trade agreements with Asia because we know that the world has moved on from the protectionist and xenophobic views that the Labor Party are trying to put into this discussion. People are saying: 'Get on with it. Sign the free trade agreement and capitalise on the opportunities. Get our products from where they are grown down to the railway, on to the port, through the South China Sea and into the marketplaces in those developing countries and develop that infrastructure.' I am glad that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is welcomed by both sides of the parliament, but I just cannot believe that the Labor Party is choosing to play politics on trade opportunities with our biggest partner. On that note, I commend the bill to the House.

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