Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Will the minister update the House on steps the government is taking to help business capitalise on the opportunities presented by the free trade agreements the government has concluded with the major economies of North Asia: Korea, Japan and China?

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wannon. He comes from a great agricultural area of Australia and he is also one of the strongest advocates for freer trade and investment in this parliament. The free trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea concluded last year do present unprecedented opportunities across all three markets—in goods, services and investments. Historically, however, while Australia has been good at concluding agreements, we have not been so good at ensuring that the benefits are well understood and acted upon by business, so we are making a determined effort to avoid this outcome this time. We are commencing a national roadshow to communicate the huge business opportunity in these agreements. We have held two half-day pilot forums in Queensland and Victoria, and we are now ready to roll out this national roadshow. Over the next two years, we intend to conduct over 50 forums at the rate of two or three a month covering all capital cities, and rural and regional centres.

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lalor!

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members from across the chamber will be invited to participate when forums are scheduled in their areas and will be encouraged to seek strong local business participation. It is crucial that we bridge the gap between policy announcements and business activities on the ground, notwithstanding the puerile comments from the other side of the chamber.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There will be silence on both sides of the House!

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is also crucial that we create the projects and potential investments to take and capture the greatly heightened international interest in investment in Australia that has been prompted by the government's open-for-business policy and these agreements. To this end, I can report that, having visited major pension funds and private investors in Toronto and New York last week, I was asked continuously about the disappearance of $37 billion worth of infrastructure projects following the election of a Labor government. Just as damaging were the references to the new Victorian government's tearing-up of the contract to construct the East West Link. Comments were being made that these sorts of contracts were no longer worth the paper they are written on. Labor, state and federal, seem hell-bent on severely damaging our economy for crass political purposes.