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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-09 Daily Xml
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Shanghai Trade Office

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:30): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier update the house on the government's plans to open a trade office in Shanghai and how this will complement the federal government's pro-trade agenda, as outlined in last night's federal budget?

The SPEAKER: The Premier, who will be heard in silence. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:30): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I particularly like the way that you have brought a sense of decorum to the house. I think that, whilst some members have been a little bit noisy so far today, they will be very interested in my answer to this question because—

The SPEAKER: As am I.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —this is one of these areas, sir, which is of great interest not only to this chamber but to the people of South Australia because it goes without saying, sir, that South Australia, under the previous Labor government, didn't do as well as it could in terms of exports from South Australia interstate and overseas and the ability to bring money in to grow our economy, to create jobs and to keep our young people here in South Australia.

In fact, when those opposite came to power back in 2002, South Australia represented 7½ per cent of the nation's exports—7½ per cent. By the time they left, it was less than 4 per cent. Despite the fact that we still had 7.1 per cent of the nation's population, we had less than 4 per cent of the exports. That needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

Recently, I met with ambassador Jingye Cheng, the ambassador for the People's Republic of China, here in Australia and it was a great opportunity to meet with His Excellency and speak to him about our ambition in the new government to grow the size of our exports to China. I must say, it was an important meeting for us to hit the reset button in terms of our relationship with China. In recent years, our export of what is referred to as 'merchandise exports' to China has actually gone backwards. It is almost impossible to believe. Everywhere else in the world is actually massively increasing exports to China, except in one place: South Australia.

We are not accepting this reality lumped upon the people of South Australia by the former government. We are going to do everything we can to grow the size of our exports out of this state. There is a great lot of opportunity for South Australia in this particular area, whether it be commodity exports, agricultural, mining, our wonderful wine, tourism or, of course, the very, very lucrative international student market. We will be taking every single opportunity to advance the case for exports out of South Australia and money coming in from other jurisdictions, but, in particular, with a focus on China.

To that extent, we announced in the lead-up to the election that we would be opening a South Australian office in Shanghai. Now, this is a very important market. In fact, South Australia was the only mainland state of Australia that didn't have a specific dedicated state government office in Shanghai—a very important market in China. We are going to be correcting that error. We are going to be doing it as soon as possible and, to that extent, I will let the house know today that I will be travelling to Shanghai in the coming weeks to meet with people in Shanghai to do the preliminary work that is necessary.

The former government did actually sign a sponsorship agreement to ensure that the Shanghai stadium is going to be known as Adelaide Arena—I think it's going to be called—for a very important game of football. The Port Adelaide Football Club will be playing the Gold Coast Suns.

Now, despite the very obvious problem with the AFL choosing the Gold Coast Suns and, in particular, the colour of their guernseys, which must be annoying to the Port Adelaide Football Club playing a game in China, this, of course, is an important opportunity to advance our prospects in this important market. I will be taking this opportunity. We are promoting South Australia. I look forward to growing the amount of exports that we have to China and working with the new Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the Hon. David Ridgway, to make sure that that becomes a reality, that we grow jobs and create more jobs here in South Australia.

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