Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this motion and call on the Palaszczuk government to honour Australia's commitment to free trade. We all wish to see Queensland business grow and prosper, but jeopardising export industries is not the way to go about it. I welcome long-overdue moves to make doing business with the Queensland government easier but draw the line when this risks Central Queensland exports.

By their own admission, the Palaszczuk government spends $14 billion a year buying supplies and services. The value of Queensland exports is around $70 billion, over five times the value of government spend. Sixty per cent of these go to countries where we have a free trade agreement. Queensland is also a net exporter with a $21 million balance of trade. The Palaszczuk government's reckless pursuit of a vote is putting all of this in jeopardy. A 30 per cent 'buy local' weighting will push prices up while making sure Queensland business remains uncompetitive outside government procurement.

If Queensland Labor persists with this ludicrous idea, we can expect the $14 billion spend to increase to $18 billion. Where does the additional $4 billion come from? From the pockets of small business, from the budgets of mums and dads, from our electricity bills and through our car registrations. It was a Labor Prime Minister who stood in front of Australia and said that protectionism was 'contrary to prevailing wisdom'. Premier Palaszczuk, if you won't listen to reason, if you won't listen to the Minister for Trade, if you won't listen to signatories of our free trade agreements, then at least listen to the words of your own former leader. If you persist with unravelling the free trade agreements, you won't just be undoing the work of my colleagues Minister Ciobo and Minister Pitt, you won't just be undoing the work of your former Labor leader; you will be guaranteeing that Queensland businesses, already constrained by electricity price gouging and red tape, will be slammed with a 30 per cent penalty on exports.

Queensland business can grow and compete if you reduce the cost of doing business, not by initiating protectionist policies that belong in the 1950s. Yes, if Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jacqui 'Anti-trade' want to help Queensland business, they should be encouraging more trade, encouraging more investment, reducing the cost of compliance and reducing the cost of electricity so that Queensland businesses have a fighting chance and so they can compete on a global scale. But they want to rob Peter to pay Paul. I can tell you, Paul will only be hit with more hidden taxes to pay for the blunder, while Peter will have to sack all of his workers as exports dry up. They have already antagonised New Zealand, risking $5 billion in Queensland exports and the 20,000 jobs that go with it. When this was promoted as an absolute shot in the arm for small business, I can only assume it was to inject businesses with the same ignorance that the Labor Party is inhaling. The Labor Premier's argument for Queensland job protection is fundamentally flawed. By its very definition, trade is an exchange of goods and commodities; it is not a one-way street. It could jeopardise agreements with Chile, Japan, United States, Korea and New Zealand. It could jeopardise the deal with Singapore.

The Shoalwater Bay military expansion will be a game changer for my electorate of Capricornia. While the Palaszczuk government refuses to budge on water infrastructure, it is probably the only chance we have to diversify the economy. On one hand, the Premier wants federal intervention to protect export markets; while on the other she is doing everything she can to unravel the balance of trade. Either she wants to see exports from Central Queensland grow or she doesn't. Either she wants local businesses like Dobinsons Spring & Suspension to continue exporting to over 50 countries or she doesn't. If the Palaszczuk government had any economic acumen, it would understand the importance of free trade deals for regional economies. It would understand that in my electorate of Capricornia free trade deals underpin economic growth in agriculture, defence industry and tourism. But it doesn't; it doesn't understand economic development and it doesn't understand regional Queensland.

See this speech in context