Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The point I am making is that the services sector makes up 70 per cent of the Australian economy but it only contributes to 17 per cent of exports. With the Chinese-Australian free trade agreement being signed, we find ourselves in a situation where the Chinese, in addition to wanting our commodities and our resources, want our services. That is what they want most. They want our legal services, education services, prudential regulatory services and insurance services. In response to Senator Dastyari's allegations of no action, imagine if we could move from 17 per cent of exports from services in this country up to 35 per cent or 40 per cent, replacing what we are losing now in the resources sector. The same will happen with Korea. There is an enormous opportunity for this to happen.

The number of tourists coming into Australia now is huge. They tell me that 100 million Chinese travelled last year. That figure will increase to 200 million. We have opportunities in our tourism and hospitality sectors. I gave a speech last year on long-term unemployment on the Gold Coast. There was an interesting stat that Senator Muir might be interested in. There are about 85,000 jobs urgently needing filling in the hospitality and tourism sectors in this country at this moment. I am not suggesting that every long-term unemployed person might be interested in those positions, but the number of people in long-term unemployment in this country is 85,000. Imagine the increase we are going to have and are seeing already now with the increase in tourism and hospitality.

I had the opportunity, at my own expense, to spend a week in Mexico in January. There are opportunities there for our country in higher education. Fifty thousand students leave Mexico each year in the energy sector and they need to the skills we have in their skills development. PEMEX, the Mexican owned oil company, is setting up its own university and asking Australia for our assistance in mining exploration in the oil and gas sector. There are enormous opportunities for us.

I am an absolute optimist. When I have a look at what we have in this country, such as the fact that we are at the forefront of 3D printing, and the thousands of jobs that are going to be needed, I am an optimist. We do not need to be held back by a regressive opposition.