Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of ministers, I table five ministerial statements and seek leave to have the statements incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statements read as follows—

Australia-United States ‘Open Skies’ Agreement

Last week the Australian government successfully negotiated an open skies agreement with the United States. This development represents a watershed for trans-Pacific aviation. Under the new agreement, Australian and United States airlines will be able to fly an unlimited number of services between our two countries through any combination of other destinations. This agreement has been a priority for me and the government since our election last year. The agreement with the United States opens the way for increased competition, new services and the potential for lower fares on one of Australia’s most important air routes. The United States is Australia’s third largest aviation market, with 48 Australian and 17 US services weekly on the Australia-United States route. In 2007, nearly one million passengers travelled each way between Australia and the US—around 496,000 Australians departing for the US and 459,000 American arrivals in Australia.

Over the last 10 years, the Australia-US route has seen an average annual growth of 3.3 per cent, a figure with real hope of substantial improvement through this landmark open skies agreement. The Rudd Labor government is committed to opening further opportunities for Australian aviation, trade and tourism, resulting in the creation of jobs for Australians. Tourism is already responsible for around half a million jobs in Australia, and this agreement should help to further strengthen our tourism industry. The agreement allows airlines to determine how many flights they operate and the destinations they wish to serve in the United States and beyond, based on consumer demand and commercial decisions without interference from government. This enables a wider range of options for consumers and a more competitive market.

Previously, entrants were only guaranteed a start-up of four services a week, making it difficult for new airlines to commence operations on a commercial basis. The Australia-US agreement negotiated last week now opens the way for V Australia, the Virgin Blue subsidiary, to commence services from November this year. I am very pleased to advise the House that V Australia has confirmed that, with the signing of this agreement, they will now proceed to introduce 10 services a week to the US from the end of this year. V Australia is investing more than $2 billion in the purchase of six new long-range B777 aircraft. This is an investment in Australian jobs, Australian skills and opening up new markets for Australian companies. The agreement will provide certainty for Qantas and Jetstar to plan and grow into the future and widen the network of cities they can serve in the United States and beyond the US market. The Qantas Group currently operate 48 services a week on the Pacific route. They have indicated that this will increase to 51 services a week from March of this year. It also opens greater opportunities for dedicated air freight services and greater access for Australian carriers to destinations in the US and beyond. The agreement has been welcomed by Australian airlines and the tourism industry. In a statement on Friday, 15 February, the Tourism and Transport Forum said:

The new arrangements will result in more choice and improved access for U.S. visitors, enabling the industry to more effectively market Australia’s tourism experiences in the USA.

Liberalising Australian skies and opening markets for Australian carriers will drive growth through competition and remove unnecessary regulatory burden on businesses. Aviation is a major industry in Australia and growth can only mean more jobs for Australian workers in the aviation industry and more choice for Australian consumers. Australia has been a longstanding leader in the benefits of liberalisation, and the international aviation sector has been no small element of the picture. Australia has extensive experience of the benefits of liberalisation. Following deregulation by Labor, our domestic market has gone from strength to strength. We now have one of the most competitive domestic aviation markets in the world. In recent years, we have seen the global growth of new low-cost international carriers. Jetstar and Pacific Blue are now adding to the range of competitive services available to and from Australia. The new generation of low-cost international carriers—Jetstar, Pacific Blue and foreign operators such as Tiger Airways and AirAsia X—will continue to build competition in the Australian market, offering cheaper fares and new options for tourists travelling to and from countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and New Zealand. The agreement concluded with the US will now enable a second full-service, long-haul Australian international airline. With V Australia’s entry into the lucrative Australia-US market, we anticipate a new dimension in competition on the route.

As an island nation with a significant tourism industry, the airline industry is a major contributor to Australia’s economy. Our tourism industry and our high-value, time-sensitive export industries depend on these links, supporting a whole raft of downstream industries. We need to make sure that we are maximising the benefits that a strong Australian based aviation sector can offer our country. This does not mean opening our skies while other countries keep their own markets closed. This would do nothing but allow other airlines to exploit our markets without allowing the Australian airline industry to compete. Australia is by no means the end of the world, but we are in many ways the end of the line in global transport linkages. Our position as an end-point destination leaves us with few competitive traffic rights to trade in order to gain access to valuable markets overseas. Beyond the realm of air services agreements, broader commercial settings in other countries, such as government subsidies and support, bankruptcy protection and divergent tax regimes, create further market distortions. These accentuate the competitive advantages many foreign airlines enjoy, compounding their geographic advantages over end-point Australian carriers.

Unlike most sectors, the trade in air services is closed until governments act to open the market. The new Rudd Labor government will drive an active strategy to further liberalise the aviation sector, seeking cooperation with like-minded partners. In a system of unbalanced economic advantage, we must take a pragmatic approach to our liberalisation strategy, acting in the overall national interest. We will aim to reduce restrictions which limit growth while ensuring that the Australian industry can compete with international operators on a balanced playing field. We are committed to growing Australian based international airlines, as aviation is our critical link to the rest of the world. Importantly, as government removes unnecessary economic regulation and opens our skies, we must ensure that safety and security are not compromised. All new services must continue to meet the requirements of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and security agencies to keep our skies safe and secure.

Since my appointment on 3 December last year, I have met with the CEO of Qantas, Geoff Dixon, and the CEO of Virgin Blue, Brett Godfrey, to consult on the details of the proposal. On 5 February, I welcomed the US ambassador, His Excellency Robert McCallum Jr, and economic counsellor Edgard Kagan to Parliament House for discussions on the proposal. I want to place on record the government’s thanks to the US ambassador for his active support of the deal. I am proud to commence my term as Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government with this success in the United States. I thank my colleagues the Minister for Tourism and the Minister for Trade for their support. I would like to congratulate the officials from my department and Australia’s embassy in Washington who worked so hard to negotiate this deal, in particular, Mr Stephen Borthwick, Australia’s lead negotiator, and his team.

This agreement also demonstrates the strength of the Australia-US relationship. The United States is one of Australia’s most important economic partners, and the agreement will provide great opportunities for increasing trade and commercial links between our two countries. Just as important is the recognition that the strength of our relationship is based upon the personal interaction of our citizens. The increasing two-way travel between Australia and the United States which will derive from this agreement will have a long-term benefit in increasing understanding and friendship between our two great nations. More broadly, this agreement on one of Australia’s most important air routes signals the next step in growth not only for Australian aviation but also for our tourism and business sectors.

Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan is at a crossroads and the time for making difficult decisions is upon us. For the global community the stakes are high. For the Afghan people, they are even higher.

When we gather in Bucharest in April, the partners to the Afghanistan project need to embrace a new strategy to win. To win not just the military battle, but the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Broadly, there are five keys to winning the military campaign.

The first is reaching agreed and common campaign objectives. The second is securing a coherent campaign plan. The third is clarifying chains of command and lines of responsibility. The fourth is securing new NATO troop commitments. The fifth is growing the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police Force to the critical mass and skill level they need to hold our military gains and to enforce the rule of law in their war torn country.

Winning the hearts and minds of the local population will require the partners to do more on the non-military side. First, we must do more to build an economy free of narcotics. Second, we must do more to provide guidance and assistance on governance issues. And, third, we must focus more acutely on the establishment of a justice system not so vulnerable to corruption and manipulation.

In short, it is about giving the Afghan people hope, hope that a democratic Afghanistan can deliver for them a decent society and a decent standard of living.

It is appropriate to acknowledge that, on both the military and non-military fronts, significant gains have been made. We have enjoyed some success in targeting insurgent leadership and we have disrupted their coordination and lines of command.

Six million Afghan children are now receiving an education and 80 per cent of the population now has access to basic health care. But so much more needs to be done.

Today I am able to inform the House, the Australian community and the wider global community that the new Australian government has taken a number of decisions which will demonstrate we are willing to back our criticisms of the Afghanistan mission with real and meaningful action.

The government has decided to adjust Australia’s defence contribution in Afghanistan. While maintaining our engineering and security effort, we intend to increase our focus on training.

This means the Australian government has decided to maintain our current level of military commitment to Afghanistan, but to increase the focus on training and mentoring of the Afghanistan national army.

We are making these changes with an eye on the longer term future of the country, noting that the government of Afghanistan needs to be able to develop the security forces which will provide the security for their own citizens into the future.

The adjustments to Australia’s military commitment will be focused on enhancing the capabilities of the Afghan national army while retaining our reconstruction and combat effort in Oruzgan.

Based on both our reviews and consultation with our partners, the new government believes the time is right for Australia to evolve the role of its forces so that the additional task of training the Afghan army can be embraced and adopted.

This will be achieved by providing an Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team which will be responsible for the training of an Afghan national army battalion which will shortly commence operations in Oruzgan province.

The introduction of this training team will be an important step in assisting the development of the Afghan security forces. As part of the broader effort of our Dutch partners, the Australian training team will commence operations later this year. The core of the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team will be highly skilled officers and senior non-commissioned officers with experience in infantry operations. The team will also include integral force protection troops and assets.

The training team will be embedded with an Oruzgan based Afghan national army battalion—commonly known there as a Kandak—which normally consists of around 600 soldiers. The Australian Defence Force personnel will mentor and advise key commanders within the Kandak during both training and operations. The mentoring and training team will assist the Kandak Headquarters in military operational necessities such as logistics and personnel management, force protection planning and coordinating combined operations.

The commitment of the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team will help rebuild the security institutions of the Afghan government, particularly in the Oruzgan province.

The training team will develop the skills of the Afghan security forces to enable them to do the job that is currently being undertaken by coalition forces. The need for this shift in focus is well recognised by the international community.

ISAF’s operational mentoring and liaison teams have been operating successfully with the Afghan army throughout the various provinces in Afghanistan. Given this success, the international community is increasingly moving towards providing greater training to the Afghan national security forces through these teams.

While this adjustment to our military commitment will not result in an increase in the number of troops that we have deployed in Afghanistan, Australia will maintain all of its current force elements including the Reconstruction Task Force, the Special Operations Task Group, the Rotary Wing Group and the Control and Reporting Centre.

The Reconstruction Task Force will continue to make its important contribution to the reconstruction and security of Oruzgan province. It will retain a construction and security capability as well as continuing to manage the trade training school and provide project management experience to assist the people of Oruzgan in rebuilding their province.

The Special Operations Task Group will also continue its work in providing security for the province by taking the fight directly to the insurgents. This work creates a more secure environment for the international community and the Afghan government to deliver development assistance in the Dutch and Australian supported province of Oruzgan. Further, the Rotary Wing Group and the Control and Reporting Centre, based in Kandahar, will continue to provide vital air transport and battle airspace management for the international community’s efforts in southern Afghanistan.

In addition to the initiatives that I have announced today, the government will soon announce an enhancement of its efforts on the non-military side of the equation.

The government remains firmly committed to international efforts to stabilise and rebuild Afghanistan. As I noted earlier, a strong, highly trained and competent Afghan national army will be critical for the future security of the country.

Australia’s continued military commitment to Afghanistan and its ongoing participation in the International Security Assistance Force mission reflects the critical role a stable Afghanistan plays in regional and international security. Australia has a direct interest in working with our international partners and the Afghan government to ensure that the country does not again become a base for terrorist activity. Australia remains committed to working with the government of Afghanistan to improve governance and security and to develop its capacity to deliver improved services to its citizens.

I look forward to working with our ISAF partners in Bucharest and beyond to deliver a safe, secure and stable Afghanistan.

2020 Youth Summit

One of the key messages that I heard while on the campaign trail in the lead-up to the most recent election was that Australians want their governments to think beyond their term of incumbency. This call is not a new one. For some time I have been aware that frustration about short-term thinking has been growing in the community.

The consequences of that short-term mindset now have us a decade further down the track hurtling towards challenges such as climate change, water management concerns, skills shortages and housing affordability crises, to name but a few. We are charged with the responsibility, therefore, of ensuring that we now build a modern Australia to tackle the challenges of the future. We recognise that in doing so we bear an important accountability to future generations for the decisions that we make today. Because we are a government that realises that the entire repository of wisdom and insight about how to respond to those challenges does not solely rest with us, the Prime Minister is calling together 1,000 of the nation’s best and brightest minds for the Australia 2020 Summit on 18 and 19 April.

We realise that the nature and magnitude of the challenges before us require the ingathering of the particular genius of the breadth and depth of the Australian community. This is fresh new thinking. A crucial component of the genius that will be required to find ways to tackle these challenges and shape the future effectively is to be found in young Australians.

We are a government—and I intend to be a minister—that not only talks about the fact that young people are our nation’s finest resource but actually taps into that resource and engages young people in the discussion about what they want their future to be like. That is why I was proud to announce earlier this week that I will be hosting a Youth Summit on the weekend immediately prior to Australia 2020. The Youth Summit will be a dedicated two-day summit held on 12 and 13 April in Canberra ahead of Australia 2020. The summit will bring together 100 young people, 15 to 24 years of age, in discussions on the same critical areas as Australia 2020.

It has often been the case that young people’s participation in decision making is limited to discussion about what are perceived to be youth issues. But what I and this government realise is that the issues that young Australians are faced with and concerned about are whole-of-community issues. Indeed, when we ask young people for their views and visions, invite their insights and seek their proposed solutions, we realise that this generation of young Australians have a unique grasp of the challenges ahead and a particular experience of life that enables them to come up with solutions that we might not have otherwise considered. When we involve them, we find that they very often possess the new thinking so urgently required. My hope and expectation is that the group of 100 young Australians gathering on 12 and 13 April in Canberra will offer precisely this.

A dedicated Youth Summit demonstrates the government’s commitment to young people being at the table when long-term challenges are discussed. Young Australians are already contributing to addressing these challenges now and will inherit full responsibility for them in the future. This event shows that the government understands the fundamental importance of involving young Australians because they will be the parents, business leaders and community leaders inheriting the consequences of decisions made today.

But it is important to emphasise that the Youth Summit is not about tokenism or conveying an impression of participation. The Youth Summit will feed in a very real way into Australia 2020. The Youth Summit program will reflect the Australia 2020 program. It will produce a brief, overarching communique to the Australia 2020 summit and an attachment to the communique presenting three key youth perspectives on each of the Australia 2020 challenges. Indeed, it is intended that the energy, ideas and visions generated at the Youth Summit will become a catalyst for the discussions which follow at Australia 2020. Ten of the summit participants, along with the Youth Summit co-chair, former Young Australian of the Year Hugh Evans, will go on to participate in Australia 2020 the following weekend.

I am delighted that Hugh Evans has accepted the invitation to co-chair the Youth Summit with me. Working on something like Youth 2020 is a natural extension of the work Hugh Evans has been doing all of his life. He established the Oaktree Foundation, Australia’s first entirely youth run and youth driven aid and development agency, which is now providing more than 1,000 people with a chance of getting an education for the first time in their lives. He also established the Youth Ambassadors program with World Vision and he was the first ambassador in the program. He is a passionate advocate for young Australians. Hugh cares about making a difference and takes every opportunity to ensure that young Australians’ voices are heard. Just referring to the biography on Hugh Evans’s website makes it perfectly obvious why we have invited this young man to help lead the summit:

At just 23 years of age, Hugh Evans is dedicating his life to helping the most underprivileged people in this world.

Hugh’s passion for helping others began when he was 12 years old and became involved in World Vision’s 40-Hour Famine. He started organising the Famine at his school and personally set himself very high targets. Over the next few years, his school became the highest fundraising school for the 40-Hour Famine in Australia. At age 14, a sponsored trip to the Philippines to see World Vision’s work first hand impacted Hugh’s life immensely. Sleeping in a slum, Hugh witnessed an entire community built around a garbage dump and saw children scavenging and dying around him. It was a turning point in his life.

This experience led him to found The Oak Tree Foundation, Australia’s first entirely youth-run and youth-driven aid and development agency. With over 250 volunteers under the age of 25, it is a movement of young Australians who seek to empower developing communities through education in a way that is sustainable.

“I stand for providing people in the developing world with greater opportunities and I think that a critical part of that is education and how important education is in empowering developing communities.”

In its first year, Oak Tree raised over $100,000 to develop a community resource centre in the Valley of Embo in South Africa. This centre now provides more than 1,000 people with the opportunity to receive education for the first time in their lives. Sustainability is important to Oak Tree. This means the projects undertaken have to be owned by the community, run by the community and ultimately working to enhance the community.

Hugh believes young people can do anything given the opportunity. The Oak Tree Foundation “provides an avenue for many other young Australians to also make a difference in this world”. Young people are encouraged to use the gifts they already have and what they are already passionate about to serve the poor.

Hugh also established the Youth Ambassador Program with World Vision, which enables young people to go and see the work and participate themselves. Following its approval, Hugh travelled to South Africa as World Vision’s first Youth Ambassador.

A passionate humanitarian, volunteer and youth leader, Hugh remains humble. He believes people see him as “someone who can act as a representative of young Australians, of Australians that actually want to be out there in the world doing something really good. I am someone who really cares about making a difference in the developing world so if that is what I can be seen as, then that’s cool.”

Hugh’s sincerity, humility and genuineness are what have inspired so many people, young and old, to work towards helping those less fortunate. He is an inspiring individual.

Youth Summit participants will be selected through a public call for nominations. The selection process will ensure suitable demographic representation, including Indigenous representation. People with disability and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. The selection process is also designed to make sure that Youth 2020 includes young Australians from regional and metropolitan areas across all the states and territories. The website Australia2020.gov.au has been set up containing information and a mechanism for online nominations. There is a dedicated Youth Summit section on the site. In the two days since the Youth Summit was first publicly announced, the department has already received over 200 requests from young people asking for nomination forms. A 2020 steering committee of five young Australians will make recommendations on delegates for the summit.

It is also important to note that the Youth Summit is occurring within the context of the government’s broader commitment to establish an Australian Youth Forum. I have previously conveyed to the House that one of my priorities this year is to engage with young people and the youth sector, seeking their input on the formulation of a framework for the AYF. The Youth Summit will provide a key opportunity for me to speak directly with 100 young Australians as part of that consultation process. Indeed, the AYF will be formally on the agenda for discussion during the Youth Summit program.

I am proud to be a member of a government that recognises that young people’s perspectives, views and visions are valuable and worth listening to and acting on. I am proud to be part of a government that knows that young people are not just our future but also an important part of the present. I am proud to be Minister for Youth in a government that recognises that our present-day decisions and actions will impact on the future lives of today’s youth. And I am proud to be a member of a government that not only commits to give young Australians a voice but intends to work in partnership with them in shaping the future.

Review of Export Policies and Programs

I remind the House that during the election campaign Labor made a commitment that if elected to govern we would undertake a comprehensive review of all existing trade policies and programs, a review that would be aimed at positioning exporters and the nation to take maximum advantage of the ongoing resources boom but, more importantly, to develop the full export potential of all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, industrial goods and services.

I am pleased to announce to the parliament today the details of that review.

The review is essential because the previous government squandered the opportunity provided by the resources boom to position Australia for a sustainable economic future.

I remind the House also that under the last Labor government we got the trade and economic policy mix right.

We opened up the economy, we floated the Australian dollar, we cut tariffs, we deregulated the financial sector, we introduced wage restraint through the accord and we also locked in, through that accord mechanism, the low inflation and low interest rate environment that until recently has been experienced in this country. We introduced national superannuation, the greatest intergenerational policy reform of this country in retirement income reform, we developed national competition policy, significant cuts to company and personal tax and greater independence of the Reserve Bank.

All of those measures, which are integrated components aimed at improving our export performance amongst other things, achieved strong productivity growth in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, as a result of the deregulated wages system and enterprise bargaining that we introduced under the accord, this country experienced the greatest step-up in productivity in the history of this country. What we did through that mechanism by linking wages to productivity, linking it to enterprise and linking it to our export sector contributed much to the double-digit growth in Australia’s exports and to lowering inflation.

In contrast—because this is the whole point of those opposite who say that they presided over good export growth under their watch—under the last six years of the Howard government, despite a resources boom, total export revenues grew at an annual average rate of only 5.8 per cent compared with 10.7 per cent in the 18 years following the float of the dollar in 1983. Goods exports grew at an average annual rate of 6.4 per cent compared with an average growth of 10.3 per cent since 1983. Service exports grew at about a third of the long-term average, and manufacturing exports collapsed under the government in the last six years, growing only three per cent compared with 13 per cent since 1983.

What did all this result in? It resulted in a trade deficit for more than five consecutive years and a trade deficit for the December quarter 2007—their parting gift as they went out of office, rejected by the Australian public—of $6.9 billion, which is the worst quarterly trade deficit on record. It resulted in 69 consecutive months of goods and services trade deficits; a current account deficit at record levels, around six per cent of GDP; soaring foreign debt of $554 billion in 2006-07; and net exports making a positive contribution to Australia’s economic growth in only two of the 11 years that that government was in office.

Contrast that with when Labor was in office for 13 years. Net exports made a positive contribution to growth in 10 of those 13 years without the resources boom compared with the Howard government’s failure with a resources boom. Despite the strongest growth in the world economy in more than 20 years, the value of Australian exports actually slowed under the Howard government, particularly in recent years. Export values grew by four per cent in 2007 compared with 18 per cent in 2006 and 15 per cent in 2005.

That is the appalling trade performance that we inherited—the trade performance bequeathed by the Howard government to this nation.

The former government believed that it could coast along on a resources wav