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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

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Manufacturing, Innovation and Trade. Can the minister update the house on South Australia's trade relationship with Indonesia?

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland—Minister for Manufacturing, Innovation and Trade, Minister for Small Business) (14:49): I thank the member for Taylor for her question. Sir, I should point out very quickly to the house that the trade relationship with Indonesia is quite healthy. It remains an important trading partner for South Australia, with two-way trade in 2012-13 totalling over $600 million. Indonesia is South Australia's sixth largest export market and second largest market for agrifood exports, with a value of $354 million. There is also a top export market for South Australian wheat and meslin, with 27 per cent of all wheat and meslin exports going to Indonesia.

The government, while it does not have a trade office in Indonesia any more, continues to assist people wishing to export to Indonesia, with TradeStart, Gateway and an excellent relationship with Austrade. I tell you that it is not this government's policy, and never will be, to sit overseas and criticise our own state while we are on a trade mission; we will never do that. We will never sit overseas and criticise our own state, run our own state down at the same time as trying to drive exports into that state.

What we will do, and what I have done over the last three years, is build a bipartisan relationship with people in trade. I have taken the member for Waite with me on three occasions this year. I have taken him to the United Arab Emirates, India and China, and we have worked together to drive exports for this state. It has been surprisingly successful, and should I return as minister for trade next year I will continue to do so, because it is important for this state to have a bipartisan approach to trade.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for the first time, and it would be a tragedy if in his final week of sittings of this house he were to depart early. I would not wish that.

The Hon. T.R. KENYON: It would be a tragedy. Don't do that, sir. Have mercy.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Manufacturing.

The Hon. T.R. KENYON: I am prepared to take the pain, sir, from him. I will continue to work with the opposition. I will continue to take the member for Waite, or whoever the shadow trade minister is at that time, with me overseas to work on trade missions, because it is effective. When we are overseas with people, they are surprised that the minister and the shadow minister of the two major opposing parties of this state are there together, working overseas to further trade in their country, and I will continue to do that.

I certainly will not be advocating while I am overseas trying to ingratiate myself with a market. I certainly won't be advocating the shutdown of the manufacturing industry in this state as the Leader of the Opposition did. I won't be saying that we should keep the high-end parts—the R&D and design—in Australia but actually get the manufacturing done overseas, because this government wants manufacturing done in this state, in this country. We're trying to improve manufacturing with our manufacturing works. We have a clear and effective strategy to do that and will not be moving manufacturing offshore, as seems to be the policy of the Leader of the Opposition.

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite has a supplementary question.

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