Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Trade and Competitiveness and the Minister for Defence, Senator Bob Carr. I refer the minister to my unanswered questions of 1 November regarding the government's cancellation of its long-intended purchase of South Korea's LAND 17 self-propelled howitzer.

In particular, I refer to the minister's assurance about his 'cordial' conversation with Korean foreign minister Kim when I asked whether the government's decision would have diplomatic, trade or commercial fallout for Australia, given the Korean government's closeness to its defence industry. Are free trade agreement negotiations with South Korea now stalled because the capricious cancellation of this purchase prompted Korea to increase its insistence on the inclusion in the FTA of investor-state dispute resolution clauses to mitigate against exactly this sort of sovereign risk? Will the minister answer the parts of my question that he took notice on 1 November?