Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Senator, if you were listening to what I was just talking about, we need to be exporting, we need to be operating in a global economy and we need to be able to compete. I am happy to take your interjection, Senator Farrell, because what your government did not do was encourage industry to compete in the global market. They did not set a strategy where they looked out rather than looking in. And that is what we need to encourage our industry to do, because that is what is going to allow them to grow. If they want to just rely on the Australian market, that is going to limit their capacity. We need to be putting the economic fundamentals in place so that our businesses can compete in both the Australian and the international markets. And there are huge opportunities for us to do that.

If you look at the food industry and what has happened to it in recent years—and I know Senator Xenophon and Senator Madigan are vitally interested in that sector—there is the opportunity for it to look out of Australia. There is the opportunity for it to look out at the emerging markets in our region, where the quality of our product is recognised, the safety of our product is recognised and there is a market at a premium price for us as well. So we need to be working with our industries on a strategy that provides them with a competitive base in the Australian market, but which also provides them with a competitive base in the international market. That is the opportunity for these industries to grow. It is not by trying to confine themselves to the Australian market; it is not by the Australian government buying from just one place, because we also have trade obligations that we must meet.

We have done deals to say that we will be an open trading economy, but what that means is that we need to get the fundamentals right for our industries so that they can play and complete. And that goes right across the economy. Senator Madigan sat with me on the Senate select committee into the food processing sector. We looked right across that industry. The issues are all the same: we need the industrial relations settings right, we need the taxation settings right, we need the education settings right to provide skills for employed people and we need the innovation sector to be working as part of that process too.

Yes, government should, where it can, in accordance with its procurement guidelines and getting value for money for taxpayers, buy Australian product, but we need to ensure that it is done on fair and reasonable terms because that is what our industries and our businesses expect when they export overseas. So it is a two-way street. I understand the passion that both senators have in bringing this motion to the chamber, and I respect that passion for their local manufacturing industries and businesses. I know that senators across the chamber support their local businesses where they can. I always buy Australian paper for my office; it is a value decision I have made. It is important that we all continue to do that too. I will cut my comments short so that other senators can make a contribution to the debate.