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

We have a record number of Australian businesses that are exporting now. More than 53,000 Australian businesses are engaged in exporting across the globe, including 46,000 small and medium sized enterprises. That's an increase of more than 18 per cent since our government was elected. There are 18 per cent more businesses across all sectors of the economy that are engaged in export activity, and it's estimated that more than 240,000 trade related jobs have been created in the last five years. So, when we think about the employment strength that Senator Cash and Senator Cormann were speaking of earlier today and the jobs growth in Australia, a huge component of that is because of the growth in our export positions. Yes, that has been supported by our trade agreements and by opening up market access across the Australian economy, but it has also been supported by the direct assistance that we as a government provide to help Australian businesses enter those markets. That's why we've grown so many additional exporters.