Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister representing the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Minister, how is the Morrison government delivering on its balanced plan to support our exporters, and how does this compare against the risk of alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Herbert for his question and for his passion for trade. He understands that one in four jobs in regional and rural areas are dependent on trade, and one in five right across the nation. That's why he backed a $75 million investment in the Townsville port which will see us grow our trade from that port.

We went to the last election with a balanced plan when it came to trade. We said we were going to implement the Hong Kong and Indonesia FTAs—and we are on the way to the Indonesia FTA, following the fantastic visit from the President of Indonesia. We said we would get closer economic relations with India, and, as we speak, the minister for trade is in India, with 100 companies, making sure that we strengthen our relationship with India when it comes to trade. We also said we would pursue FTAs with Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia through the Pacific Alliance. We've begun those negotiations and they're going extremely well. We said we would pursue free trade agreements with the EU and with the UK, and the minister for trade is already undertaking discussions on both those agreements. At the last election we said we would grow coverage from 70 per cent to 90 per cent for those countries we're doing trade with through our free trade agreements, and we are on target to meet that. We took a plan, a balanced plan, to the last election, and we're pursuing it.

I am asked about alternative approaches. On the weekend, we heard about Labor's uncosted, untested, no-plan approach to zero emissions by 2050. If you were in a emissions-intensive trade-exposed industry, you would have been asking yourself on the weekend, 'What does this mean to me? Are we going to face a new tax on our industry?' Now, what are those emissions-intensive trade-exposed sectors? They are the aluminium, glass, cement, printing, steel, and abattoir sectors. As I said before, trade delivers jobs for one in four people in regional Australia; all those industries are in regional areas. So those people who are working those sectors would be asking themselves today, and asking themselves in the weeks and months ahead, 'How can we trust Labor? What will this do to my family budget? What will this do to my job?' They would be asking themselves why you would trust Labor on anything, especially when it comes to protecting those in emissions-intensive trade-exposed industries. (Time expired)