Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Hinkler for his question. He represents an electorate on the coast of Queensland and would recognise the significant importance of the close relationship between Australia and Japan, given that the services sector is our largest export earner and that inbound tourism from Japan is a very important component of the earnings in the electorate of Hinkler.

Japan is the largest economy in Asia and our largest trading partner, and in 2005 that trading relationship was worth a record $50.7 billion. It is the most significant trading relationship we have. Exports to Japan alone rose by 24 per cent in 2005, to stand at $31.5 billion. Some of the more important sectors in that export effort were minerals and fuels, for example, which set a record in 2005 of $15.6 billion. A lot of those exports were obviously from Western Australia, but they are very important in the overall structure of our economic relationship with Japan.

In recent years the beef industry has been the single largest recipient of benefit from our relationship with Japan. Last Friday I was in Rockhampton for the Beef Australia Expo 2006—I am sure the member for Capricornia, if she is here, also supported the expo—and had the opportunity to talk with many beef producers and processors there about what has happened in the global beef market. We are reaching for an export figure of $5 billion in toto for the beef industry. I am sure that when the member for Hotham was there he was apprised of how well the beef industry is going in exports.

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