Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bushby for his question and his strong advocacy on behalf of all Australian businesses—but particularly Tasmanian businesses—to be able to increase their exports. Indeed, there is great news today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the release of their balance of payments update. What we've learnt today is:

The balance on goods and services surplus in the September quarter 2018 was $6,607 million, a rise of $2,704 million. Exports of goods and services rose $3,390 million …

That means that Australian exports are up by close to $3.4 billion in terms of sales from our country and our surplus position in terms of our trade is getting stronger, all of it helped and driven by the fact that our government has increased access for Australian businesses to be able to sell their goods to the world. Where and how are we seeing that growth occur? For example, in China, where one of our free trade agreements was struck, we saw exports grow by 22 per cent last year. Exports of milk powder and skincare products more than doubled. Nickel exports more than quadrupled. Exports of lobster or table grapes grew some eightfold.

What does this strong export growth mean? It means more revenue for Australian businesses, more jobs for Australian employees and better wages for Australian employees. And what does that mean? That means, of course, those businesses, those people with jobs and those people with better jobs are paying more tax. More tax means more revenue for investment in essential services such as health, education and welfare that our government delivers. And, because we've got more exports and more revenue coming from those exports, that means we can deliver those services without the need for the higher taxes that those opposite have planned for Australians if they were to go— (Time expired)