Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I think all Australians are watching with increasing dismay the escalation of what seems to be a serious trade dispute between Australia and China. Every day, we see increasing reports of restrictions from China on imports of Australian beef, barley, wine, coal, sugar and other products. These bans and these restrictions have particular significance in my home state of Queensland, given the volume of exports from Queensland to China and the number of jobs that hang off those exports.

To give you some sense of this, I just want to quickly quote from a report issued recently by Queensland economist Gene Tunny. He observes:

Queensland is obviously heavily exposed to trade restrictions from China … Queensland's annual goods exports to China of circa $25 billion amount to around 7% of our Gross State Product. Ongoing trade restrictions from China would cause major economic damage, especially in our regional economies such as Central Queensland and Mackay which are highly dependent on resources and agriculture. And, in the lead up to the 2020-21 Queensland Budget which Treasurer Dick—

that's Queensland treasurer Cameron Dick—

will hand down on 1 December, I should note that Chinese trade restrictions would be a big blow to our budget via impacts on royalties and other revenues such as payroll tax and stamp duty which would be lower due to the economic shock. Sure, our exporters may be able to find alternative markets in which to sell, but that will take time, and they may have to heavily discount their products to find non-Chinese buyers.

So this trade dispute is not just an academic exercise in my home state of Queensland. As Dr Tunny has observed, this has very real impact on Queensland's exports, on Queensland jobs, and on royalties that pay for services right around Queensland, in particular in regional economies such as Central Queensland and Mackay. That's why I have been so concerned to see some of the inflammatory rhetoric coming from LNP members of parliament and senators from Queensland. You would think that if anyone was passionate about making sure that Queensland jobs are protected and that Queensland exports grow rather than shrink it would be representatives in this chamber and in this parliament from Queensland.

I am not for a moment saying that we should be quiet about our concerns about our national interest or our values in relation to China or any other country. We should always speak up about our national interest. We should always protect our values. But this has to be done responsibly and maturely. As those figures that I have just pointed to demonstrate, there is too much on the line for reckless and inflammatory rhetoric. The responsible and mature approach is the approach that Labor have taken. We have consistently spoken up about concerns that we have regarding the human rights approach of China, around national security issues and around defence issues as well. Even just in the last few days we have expressed our concern about the escalating trade dispute with China and we have expressed our concern about what this might mean for Australian exporters and for Australian jobs. It is one thing to speak up responsibly and maturely about our values, our national interest and our defence concerns; it is another thing entirely to engage in the reckless and inflammatory rhetoric that we are increasingly seeing from members of this government. That is not going to help. That will not do anything to advance our national interests, it is not going to do anything to advance our values and it is certainly not going to do anything to protect Queensland jobs and Queensland exports.

So that's why you have to ask the question of why members of parliament like the member for Dawson, Mr Christensen, are going out there and saying in relation to the COVID-19 virus that:

… the CCP knowingly and deliberately allowed these "ambassadors of death" to infect the rest of the world.

Is that advancing our national interest in a mature and responsible fashion, or is that just recklessly going out and inflaming tensions, which has a practical consequence on Queensland jobs and Queensland exports? Similarly,

Senator Canavan has recently said:

If China buys less of our coal that means we will have some to build our own new HELE coal plants in Australia …

He's also gone on to say, 'All we're being asked to do is give up our access to cheap TVs.' This is a serious issue that deserves to be taken on responsibly and maturely. It doesn't deserve to be used as a way of generating Facebook likes which put Queensland jobs at risk. (Time expired)