Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on this MPI on behalf of the opposition and on behalf of the Ryan electorate, which I represent, in the western suburbs of Brisbane. I am pleased to do so because trade is absolutely critical to our country. Trade is about jobs; it is about growth; it is about prosperity; it is about higher wages; and it is about higher living standards for our exporters and for the rest of the community, who benefit from our exporters doing well on the world stage. Of course, we saw in the decade of the Howard government all areas of the economic index improve. People were able to get jobs. We had economic growth, economic prosperity, higher living standards and certainly higher wages.

Exporters, whether small, medium or large, had the support of the Howard government—and they should be getting the support of this government. They should be getting support from any government of any political colour. But I am not sure that that is happening under this new government. Governments need to help our exporters in every way possible to compete on the world stage. We all know that we live in a globalised world, we all know that we live in a very competitive global economy, and so every Australian exporter must have the help of their state and federal governments.

What is the Rudd Labor government doing about trade policy? I suspect that if you go down the streets in my electorate or in Brisbane or, indeed, any street in this country and ask major office or business houses what they know of the Rudd Labor government’s trade policy, they would not be able to articulate it, because, quite frankly, the government does not have a trade policy. That is the short answer. Australian people and businesses would not know what the Rudd Labor government’s trade policy is. I suspect that, in large measure, that is because the Labor Party is not really comfortable with trade. I suspect that it is not really part of the DNA of the Labor Party. I suspect that they have other preferences in the area of policy, and trade is just an aside. It is something that has to be dealt with, so they try their best but fail miserably.

I also suspect that many businesspeople in this country would not even know who the Minister for Trade—Mr Invisible—is. Yet he is the federal trade minister. When I have asked many of the exporters in my electorate of Ryan who certain ministers of the Rudd government are, including the trade minister, they have very blank looks on their faces. We are talking about an individual with enormous responsibility, an enormous capacity to make a difference, yet people in the business of exporting would not have a clue who the trade minister is. That is an absolutely disgraceful state to be in.

I am not sure whether the Rudd government itself really knows where it is on the trade policy front. I am not sure whether they believe in bilaterals. I am not sure whether they want to focus exclusively on bilaterals. Do they believe in FTAs? I am not sure how they would care to respond to the Howard government’s very successful free trade agreements.

Let me take the parliament through a couple of speeches that the current trade minister has given on the important topic of comparing FTAs and bilaterals. It is very interesting to note how the language changes depending on the audience that the minister is talking to and the context in which he is giving the talk. When the trade minister was in opposition, he talked about trade agreements being ‘political trophies’. That is just despicable. How can important trade agreements concluded between this country and others be described as ‘political trophies’? I think those in the business of export would not take too kindly to that. On 8 August 2008 in Beijing, the government’s trade minister was speaking at a Business Club Australia luncheon. What did he say about trade? He said that we are pursuing everything we can to complete a bilateral agreement with China. This was an agreement negotiated under the Howard government. On the one hand, when in opposition, such agreements were political trophies but, on the other hand, when in government, the minister talks about doing everything he can to conclude the bilateral agreement with China—a very significant country for Australia’s future prosperity and growth. In May last year, the trade minister also criticised FTAs with Singapore and Thailand—(Time expired)

See this speech in context