Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Hansard source

It is little bit disappointing, I must say, to hear the same arguments that have been parroted for months and months and months. It is also disappointing that the member has not sought a briefing, where we could have clarified in a matter of minutes those comments and serious misrepresentations. It has gone on for so long. It worried the Chinese in a way that should not be the case. Here is a country that feels so proud about the quality of this agreement—a country that feels it has demonstrated to the rest of the developed world that it can do a world-class agreement, a high-quality agreement across goods, services and investment—and about taking our relationship to a further level. We hear this parroting of misrepresentations again and again and again, creating fear in the community. It is unacceptable, I have got to say. It is about time, after months and months and months, that some responsibility was shown by everyone in this House. I just reject the comments that have been made by the member for Melbourne, and I do wish that he had bothered to come along and get a briefing. He would have found out that the misrepresentations that have been peddled by a bunch of union thugs are wrong and wrong and wrong.

There is no case for the amendments that have been put by the member for Melbourne. I reject them out of hand. I would have been very grateful had the member for Melbourne took the time to come and find out the substance and the protections embodied in this agreement. At no stage did we move outside of the worker protections that currently exist as government policy—and existed under our predecessors, by the way—because we were determined that we would not have something that would create fear and concern amongst the Australian community. We went to great lengths to ensure that. But what did we get? Endless misrepresentation by the unions, and now the member for Melbourne is still perpetuating those misrepresentations. It is unacceptable.

This is creating a great deal of confusion in China, and yet the member for Melbourne would be the first person to say that we should as a government be doing everything possible to build peace and stability in our region, especially with our major neighbours such as China. We have heard this misrepresentation, this fearmongering, this dog whistling, for months—serious dog whistling. The member from Melbourne should be ashamed of himself. I do feel that we all have to grow up in this chamber and recognise the things that are very important for our country. The opposition have been involved in negotiating this deal for 10 years, and I am very pleased that they have agreed to support this bill in a bipartisan way. I totally reject the amendments.

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