Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer. Will the Assistant Treasurer update the House on the importance of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement to jobs creation in Australia, particularly in the financial services sector? And, are there any risks to this approach?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question and acknowledge her deep commitment to jobs growth and free trade in this country. The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is a landmark agreement which is in Australia's long-term economic interests. It is good for farmers, it is good for miners and it is good for people working in services. Already, in the financial services sector, nearly 10 per cent of the Australian economy is employing nearly 400,000 people. Under ChAFTA, the rules around insurance, banking, wealth management and funds management will all be liberalised. No wonder there has been such strong support from the industry; the Bankers' Association, the Insurance Council, Equity Trustees, ANZ, Westpac are all coming out strongly in favour. The Financial Services Council said:

This agreement is an outstanding achievement for Australia. It will create jobs and growth by allowing our industries to access the world’s largest market.

I am asked: 'Are there any risks to this approach?' The greatest risk comes from those opposite and the Leader of the Opposition; his reckless obstruction of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is like seeing him sitting on his dinghy against an armada of support, which includes former Labor prime ministers, Labor state premiers and of course a former president of the ACTU.

But there is one question we have to ask in this House: when did the Leader of the Opposition start to oppose the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement? Was it: (a) in 2015, when the agreement was signed? Was it: (b) in 2014, when the agreement was concluded after nearly 10 years of negotiation? Or was it: (c) before negotiations even began, when he was leader of the union movement?

You can probably guess that the answer is (c). This is what happened on 7 February 2005, nearly three months before negotiations began. The Leader of the Opposition was the head of the AWU and he said to a national conference:

Another major challenge … before us is a possible Free Trade Agreement with China. … we remain to be convinced that any such deal with China could be in our national interest.

The agreement had not even begun negotiations. It had not even been released and he was already against it.

The Leader of the Opposition was doing the bidding of the unions then; he is doing the bidding of the unions now. He was railing against an agreement that had not even started negotiations. Let it be known. As Leader of the Opposition his job is to act in the national interest, and the national interest means getting out of the way and letting the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement become law.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.