Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Maranoa for his question. Like those on this side of the House, he is another person who is absolutely committed to opening up export markets for Australian businesses and recognises that it's taken the coalition to open up a host of new opportunities abroad which are driving our economy and driving employment opportunities for Australians. I note that under the free trade agreements that the coalition government has put in place, we've seen, for example, John Dee on the southern Darling Downs actually credit the coalition's FTAs as being key drivers of increases in global demand for their product. That has enhanced future production levels, and we've seen in the member's own electorate that John Dee now, as a consequence of opening up markets like China and Japan, is increasing full-time employment by more than 140 employees. Those are ways in which the coalition's policy approach on these free trade agreements is really promoting opportunities for Aussies and for Aussie employment.

It stands, frankly, in stark contrast to the Australian Labor Party. Not only does it get the big calls on trade wrong—you'd recall, of course, that the Australian Labor Party up until one minute to midnight was opposed to China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and condoned one of the most dishonest and disgusting campaigns that we've seen from the trade union movement against it—but we also see an Australian Labor Party that's tone deaf to the needs of our agricultural sector. The Agricultural Industries Electricity Taskforce—this goes to the member's question about threats to our trade competitiveness—said:

Electricity costs are crippling the agricultural sector.

That's precisely why the coalition is delivering reliable and affordable energy policy that will make a real difference to our competitiveness on the international stage.

Frankly, the contrast couldn't be clearer between the coalition and the Labor Party. Australians have a choice. They can choose between the coalition and Labor. They can choose between reliability and a liability. They can choose a coalition approach that's going to deliver cheaper, reliable and affordable energy, or they can choose the $66 billion bill. That's what the Australian Labor Party promises: a $66 billion bill that will put our competitors in a stronger position, because of Labor's policy, their ideological obsession with saying that they will take renewable energy to more than 50 per cent. We see it exemplified in South Australia, where we effectively have seen the collapse of sound energy policy, because they adopted the kinds of policies that $66 billion Bill wants us to pursue at a federal level.

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