Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It gives the hope for more jobs, for more enterprise and for innovation right across our country. In the course of those negotiations—which, naturally, were very tough—there was significant pressure on the Australian government and its representative, the minister for trade, to change our laws on the protection of intellectual property for new medicines known as biologics. We held firm. We took the view that our laws are adequate as they are, and we struck the right balance between protecting the intellectual property of those investing in research and the development of new drugs. As a result, there will be no changes to our rules and regulations in this area, under the TPP, and no impact on the cost or availability of medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

I remind honourable members that, in the coalition government, we have succeeded in negotiating—or the minister for trade has succeeded in negotiating—free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China. Each of them are vital foundation stones for our future prosperity. Our prosperity depends on us embracing the dynamic growth in the global economy, and, one after the other, these agreements—culminating in the TPP—are opening up the doors of each of those markets in a way that will ensure jobs, prosperity and business success for our children and grandchildren in the years and decades to come.

See this speech in context