Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is good to see that the member for Fisher has so much energy after that and it is not past his nap time—fantastic work!

As I have said in this place before, our nation has experienced almost a quarter of a century of uninterrupted economic growth. It has resulted in rising living standards for all Australians. We have seen huge advantages roll into our national economy through not only the commodity boom but also a massive uptake and increase in female workforce participation. If we are to continue this remarkable story of economic growth in our country and ensure that the next generation of Australians have equally increasing opportunities and living standards we have to run at the opportunities that present themselves to our nation.

One of the biggest opportunities that is currently presenting itself to our nation is the ability to market and sell our goods and services into the huge marketplace to our north in Asia. We have almost a billion people coming into the middle class in Asia, and before us in this parliament is an opportunity, through the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, to give access to that radically growing and enormous market for our goods and services. This will ensure that future generations of Australian can have the same opportunity for jobs as the current generation has enjoyed. If we fail to seal this deal, we are ensuring that future generations of Australians have less opportunity, not more.