Sandy Macdonald (NSW, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ian Macdonald for his comments and his generosity about Austrade. I note the questions that he raised and I undertake to ensure that they will be answered in due course, but I also understand that Minister Vaile has indicated that he will give Senator Ian Macdonald some further information.

In the brief summing-up that I would like to do, I make the point that it was a great pleasure for me to be the parliamentary secretary for trade. I got to know Austrade very well in the brief time that I held that position. Austrade has 130 officers in 30 countries around the world. It is the primary facilitator of Australian trade. It is quite frequently the first point of contact with Australia for foreign businesspeople. I do commend the quality of the people, their training and the programs, including the EMDG scheme, which was subject to legislative change earlier this evening.

Austrade are the facilitators of an extremely busy trade agenda; there is no question about that. We are a great export country and we have a great export culture which is being developed and encouraged by Austrade. People like Australians. They like dealing with us and they like to trade with us, and Austrade certainly play a very important role in that. They have of course a very busy agenda in terms of the promotion of the FTAs that have been negotiated over the last couple of years. I think the work that they have done on the US FTA is really quite remarkable. It involved an incredible amount of work in terms of identifying the benefits on a state-by-state basis for Australia and the United States. Austrade is an extremely professional organisation and it has a lot of work to do, of course, in the general trade mix, in connection with the very busy trade policy agenda in which Australia plays a very big part—especially at this time, with the conclusion of the Doha Round of the WTO which I know a lot of senators would be interested in.

This bill that we are dealing with tonight amends the Australian Trade Commission Act 1985 by bringing Austrade under the coverage of both the Financial Management and Accountability Act and the Public Service Act and by establishing an executive management structure, with a CEO directly responsible to the Minister for Trade. I think it is probably appropriate at this time to thank, on behalf of the government, the work that the board of Austrade have done. It is a very professional organisation and it has certainly been helped in that regard by the board, but times have moved on. The amendments in this legislation are in response to the review of the corporate governance of statutory authorities and office holders conducted by Mr John Uhrig. He recommended some changes which the government has chosen to accept. The amendments do not impact on Austrade’s functions or Austrade’s delivery of export promotion and facilitation services to Australian business. I commend Austrade and I commend the legislation to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.