Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I concur with the Minister for Trade in terms of our relationship with New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand do have a very strong and important relationship which has been forged across industries, across many international arenas, across many battlefields and, of course, across many sports grounds. It is a relationship that has been maintained and built on over many decades and has involved successive governments of both persuasions on both sides of the Tasman. It is a relationship that the previous, coalition government worked hard to build upon. Some 25 years after signing the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Trade Agreement, which I might add came into being following the extensive groundwork completed by a coalition government, with the heads of agreement signed in 1982, the agreement remains entrenched in the top 10 two-way trading partnerships, and Australia remains New Zealand’s top trading partner.

The Minister for Trade says that he is committed to reinvigorating the link between our two nations, and we certainly applaud him at face value for that. Of course we have also heard the Minister for Trade declare that he is committed to the Export Market Development Grants Scheme and we have heard the minister say that he is committed to negotiations with China for a free trade agreement, but in neither instance did that commitment translate to the finances required to ensure that those two issues progressed.

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