Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

And there are more jobs. One in five Australians are in trade related employment. For those in regional Australia, it's one in four. Regional Australia is so important for jobs when it comes to our export sector. Household incomes, on average, are $8½ thousand higher because of trade. At the moment, we have a record 30 consecutive monthly trade surpluses, with the two largest trade surpluses in March and May 2020. We had a record financial year trade surplus of $74.4 billion in financial year 2019-20.

We know that COVID-19 is impacting on our exporters, but, when you look at our record, goods and exports are only down 3.7 per cent in 2020. If you look at the OECD average, they are down 15.2 per cent. We understand how important trade is. That is why we're pursuing free trade agreements with the EU, with the Pacific Alliance, with our partners in ASEAN and with the United Kingdom—because we know that that will produce more jobs for our economy. (Time expired)

See this speech in context