Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Labor's scaremongering on 457 visas is as despicable as its antitrade agenda, as we saw during the ChAFTA negotiations. Despite the doomsday cries from Labor and the unions that there would be an influx of Chinese workers when the ChAFTA commenced, that did not happen. In fact, there are now fewer Chinese 457 workers in Australia than there were prior to the commencement of the ChAFTA. We see this across our free trade agreements, from China to Japan to Malaysia. The number of 457 users peaked under Labor and before the free trade agreements came into force. Labor would have you believe that they have clean hands on the issue of labour market testing, when in fact the record, Member for Blaxland, says the exact opposite. Labor concluded three free trade agreements during their six years in office—with Malaysia, Chile and the ASEAN. Those agreements are explicit. The agreements do not impose mandatory labour market testing for a range of occupations, including contractual services suppliers, which would include jobs such as electricians, teachers and nurses. If Labor were so concerned about Australian workers, they would have made labour market testing mandatory in the free trade agreements that they negotiated. The bottom line is: they did not. They are hypocrites on this issue.

I also want to answer the points put forward by the member for Goldstein. This government does recognise the role businesses play in growing jobs and wages in our economy. We understand that opening new markets for Australian businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, is key for their long-term sustainability and growth. We know that small and medium-sized Australian exporters on average employ more workers than businesses that do not export, and they pay higher wages. That is why the coalition government, through our ambitious trade agenda, are committed to assisting Australian businesses to access overseas exporting opportunities. As the member for Goldstein knows, our free trade agreements with Korea, Japan and China are already delivering, whether it is Australian exports of fresh table grapes to Japan or cherries to Korea. And of course our trade agreement with China, which Labor called 'a dud deal', has achieved massive increases in exports across a range of sectors including beef, wine, dairy and services.

The government are building on our track record. We have a full forward trade agenda aimed at delivering further market access gains for Australian businesses, gains that will spur economic growth and create new jobs. The Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment has launched negotiations with Hong Kong and Peru. He has also committed to working with the remaining 11 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But, at the first sign of trouble, Labor wanted Australia to walk away from the TPP, just like they are walking away from the liberal economic policies of the Hawke-Keating era.

The member for Blaxland was almost disarming in the way he misled, unwittingly, the chamber on Labor's commitment to free trade. Take one of the most significant free trade agreements this country has ever concluded, the agreement with China. They inherited the negotiations from the Howard government, yet they had never once intended to conclude a trade agreement with China. When they came to office, Labor ripped out the funding that the Howard government had allocated to nine government departments and agencies to continue trade negotiations, including funding for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. They were not going to conclude free trade agreements. Labor and the unions did everything possible to kneecap negotiations short of formally pulling out, which would have been an international diplomatic incident of unprecedented proportions. In fact, Labor's trade minister at the time, Craig Emerson, labelled a trade agreement with Australia's largest export market as 'overrated'. The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, joined the disgraceful xenophobic union campaign against the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. But Labor are torn between their allegiance to their trade unions, like the CFMEU and the MUA, and Australia's national interest.

Labor says it is going to scrap the government's economic diplomacy agenda. This is creating jobs for Australian workers through increased trade and investment opportunities, as trade unions like the CFMEU use their influence to prevent further free trade negotiations and attempts to reopen existing agreements. Labor does not have a plan to grow the economy. Labor has a plan for massive spending, which is a recipe for more Labor debt and more Labor deficit. That is true to the Labor tradition of profligate spending. I must say, our trade agreements are always negotiated to open new markets for Australian exporters who will drive economic growth. The decision to model FTA outcomes is made on a case-by-case basis, as Labor well knows.

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