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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-26 Daily Xml
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TRADE, INDONESIA

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Trade. If, as we have just heard, the relationship with South-East Asia and Indonesia is so important to the government, and given that South-East Asia is our most important trading partner—

The SPEAKER: Yes, let's have the question.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: —why after 12 years does the government have no strategy to engage with Indonesia or South-East Asia, no representation, and no specific programs to engage with our country's destinations?

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kavel will cease making goat noises up the back, and he is called to order. The Minister for Manufacturing.

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland—Minister for Manufacturing, Innovation and Trade, Minister for Small Business) (14:52): Just one goat, sir. We had a review of the trade offices, the Hartley Review, in 2012, I think it was. The Hartley review recommended concentrating our efforts in the two major markets and in fact our major trading partner, China. It recommended concentrating on China and India, two of the biggest markets in the world, concentrating our resources into those economies to get them right, and then look for other markets.

Let's not fall into the South Australian trap of trying to be a little bit to every person, and try to do something well in a concentrated fashion, to spend a lot of time and effort, as we have, on developing a China/India strategy and engage in a meaningful and developed way with those countries before we do exactly the same thing into South-East Asia, or wherever else we may choose to do that.

The SPEAKER: There is a supplementary question from the leader.

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