House debates

Thursday, 17 September 2015

Constituency Statements

Herbert Electorate: Trade with China

Photo of Ewen JonesEwen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I was in the chamber yesterday when Andrew Robb was putting forward the legislation enabling the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. It was a set of bills which removes tariffs. There are no bills or regulation changes relating to industrial relations, immigration or the 457 visa process—none. Currently my electorate is beset by CFMEU robocalls telling people they should afraid of the future. The Labor Party, with its joined-at-the-hip backing of this campaign, wants North Queenslanders to be afraid of our future. We are not. The funny part about it is the caller states that she is a local and implores people to call my office. She then recites the number starting with '07'. The thing about that is that to dial 07 you have to be out of the state or in Melbourne, where this 'local' actually lives. You do not dial 07 if you are even inside the borders of Queensland. This campaign is xenophobic at best and blatantly racist at its worst. If people in my electorate are worried about this give my office a call and come and see me. My number is 47252066.

Townsville and North Queensland have been our export powerhouses since we were settled—from Mt Isa to the west to the Mitchell Grass plains and the endless fields of sugar all the way along our coast. We have an export friendly attitude, and we have had that attitude forever. We know we rely on trade and we welcome it. We want the future to be about getting our region to achieve its potential and understand that investment must be made to do so. With my government's $5 billion concessional loan facility, our councils and regions will be able to build the infrastructure required to get these things to our port and to the customer. That brings jobs—not taxpayer funded government jobs, but jobs in small businesses, which then create wealth and opportunity for other people in our regions.

The member for Bendigo stood in this chamber and said that we would have unqualified Chinese people turning up to pensioners' houses masquerading as electricians and plumbers. What she does not tell, and what the CFMEU campaign does not tell you, is that they must be registered by state governments to operate in our country. It cannot happen. It will not happen. The union campaign shows the stark difference between the two major parties in this country. Labor has fallen back to what it stood for around the Great Depression and before the Second World War—making Australians afraid and keeping them ignorant. My party welcomes the future. We embrace the future; we need the future—not the future for members of this place but for children in our school community who want the opportunities that will present themselves through this. The free trade agreements are all about jobs for all Australians. They are about opportunities for all Australians, and they are about the future for all Australians, but especially those in North Queensland and Townsville.