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

The opening up of Australia and the expansion of our trade relationships has helped to fuel the very strong jobs and economic position that Australia was in going into the COVID-19 pandemic, and it will be crucial to our success and our rebuilding and our coming out of these circumstances. Around one in five Australian jobs now depends on trade, and under our government we have seen an increase of more than 18 per cent in the number of Australian businesses who export goods to the world. Equally, there is strong growth in the services sector. In both of these areas we see real potential for stronger growth in the India relationship.

Our grains industry, our red meat industry and our sugar industry all appreciate the importance of the international rules-based system and the opening up of those markets. If we look at Senator Canavan's home state, beef exports from Queensland have increased by 40 per cent in the past five years. Fruit and nut exports from Queensland have gone up significantly, as well as horticulture and others, all as a result of these strong trade relationships. (Time expired)