Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) | Hansard source

I acknowledge the minister in the chamber, and I have some specific questions, especially in relation to the EU deal, compared to the UK deal that we did when in government, because there's a stark contrast. But I want to pick up a couple of things about trade.

I acknowledge the great work the coalition did when in government. As members would remember, when we came to government in 2013, about 20 per cent of goods and services that Australia exported were covered by free trade agreements, and by the time we left government it was 80 per cent. There were 15 or 16—I forget which number—multilateral or bilateral trade agreements that we did, including the CPTPP, which was significant, but also Korea, Malaysia and China. We set up a lot of free trade agreements in government because we believe in free trade. We have always been the country that has driven trade deals, and we have been very successful at it.

Members have been talking about fuel security. I want to remind everyone in this chamber right now that we sell about $650 billion worth of stuff overseas every year, and there are four big ones: coal, iron ore, gas and food/agriculture. They're the four big ones, and they add up to about $400 billion worth of stuff. Everyone was talking just now about what the government has been doing to guarantee fuel security—speaking to some of the leaders across South-East Asia and trying to guarantee that we would get fuel supply. Do you know what they were guaranteeing in return? There was something they went up there with. They said, 'If you give us and guarantee us the fuel supplies that we need, do you know what we'll make sure we guarantee you? We will guarantee you all the coal and all the gas and all the iron ore that we sell you.' That was what we had to trade.

I never hear it, but I'd love members opposite in the chamber to get up and celebrate our coal industry, to get up and celebrate our gas industry and to get up and celebrate our iron ore industry, because they are the industries that the ministers had as leverage to get our fuel supplies. The other thing—

Matt, I'll take the interjection. Have you ever celebrated the word—have you said 'coal' in the House?

Have you said the word 'coal'?

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