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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-03 Daily Xml
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West Java and ASEAN Regional Trade

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (12:46): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges South Australia’s longstanding sister state relationship with West Java, Indonesia;

(b) recognises the potential to further strengthen this trade relationship; and

(c) calls on the Marshall Liberal government to have a more strategic approach to improving South Australian trade with West Java and the ASEAN region.

South Australians should be proud of our history of international trade and engagement. International trade is a key component of our economy. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was estimated that more than 70,000 South Australian jobs were linked to international trade.

South Australia has six sister states: Shandong in China, Rajasthan in India, West Java in Indonesia, Chungcheongnam-do in South Korea, the region of Bretagne in France and Okayama in Japan. Sister state relations are agreements to encourage cooperation and cultural ties between states. The objective of these sister state relations is to create and foster cultural and friendship links with overseas countries. I move this motion in recognition of South Australia's longstanding partnership with West Java.

West Java is an Indonesian province between the Java and Indian oceans. It has a population of more than 48 million people, with an economy that is based on agriculture and tourism. A sister state agreement with West Java was signed in August 1997, and it is with that milestone in August in mind that I thought it would be timely that this parliament formally acknowledges this partnership.

In September 2015, the Labor government renewed, or refreshed, a lapsed sister state agreement with West Java. The agreement had a focus on business, education, agriculture, arts and culture, and government-to-government knowledge capacity building. The relationship continued with a state business mission to Indonesia in 2016, and in 2017 with a public artwork jointly created by South Australia and West Java to be installed in front of the West Javan government house.

I was very proud to serve as a minister under a government that saw the strategic value in working with not only West Java but the broader ASEAN region. In 2017, Premier Weatherill allocated $1 million towards a comprehensive and targeted engagement strategy for the ASEAN region. I know that the then minister for trade and investment, Martin Hamilton-Smith, was very passionate about developing a strategic approach to how our state engages with the world.

Indonesia is emerging as a regional and economic powerhouse and a strategic partner with Australia. On a national level, the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will enter into force on 5 July 2020. That is why, with all these factors in mind, it is unbelievable that this government ripped up our state's regional trade strategies and let go of our regional trade advisers. South Australian goods exported to the ASEAN region declined by 18.8 per cent in the 12 months to March 2020. Let's just think about that figure: our nearest neighbour, our dear friends in the ASEAN region—and our goods exports declined. This is not an acceptable figure.

We know that this global pandemic will make this figure even higher and impact our export capacity even more. Now is the time that we should be re-engaging with our trading partners, like our sister state of West Java. What this government has done is conduct reviews and cut funding to our trade department. Our capacity, our capability to directly assist South Australian exporters has been compromised. The uncertainty and the indecision by this government has led insiders in the trade department to describe it in an InDaily article in 2019 as in a sorry state. We should develop strategies that leverage the advantages from trading with the world, not rip them up. To ignore these opportunities is bad for business and bad for South Australian jobs.

When I talk about these sister state relationships, I talk about the opportunities for us to engage at a deeper level. I would also like to commend the work and the contributions of the South Australian businesses that promote furthering trade ties between our state and the ASEAN region, including our sister state of West Java. We have different business councils in the private sector that help facilitate trade in the region, including those such as the Australia Indonesia Business Council, the Australia Malaysia Business Council, the Australia Philippines Business Council and, of course, related others.

We also have our deep networks of international students, and I know when I was an undergraduate at Flinders University we had a very high proportion of Indonesian and Malaysian students who lived on campus, just like I did as a country kid. In fact Flinders University specialised in Indonesian language and culture and also had this beautiful gamelan orchestra, which is unique to Indonesia.

Of course, we know we have been hit very hard by the COVID pandemic, and that has impacted on our international students, but it is important for us to remember how long our relationship has been with those in the ASEAN region who come here and study. Of course, that has often led to migration here, first under the Colombo Plan in the seventies, but others have come after that, and of course we continue our trade missions and diplomatic missions that have helped provide market intelligence to our state.

Our state has the people, resources and talent for us to seek economic security in international trade with the ASEAN region. We saw this opportunity 22 years ago when the sister state agreement with West Java was signed. We continue some of those opportunities through Indofest, which I had the opportunity to open many times as a minister for multicultural affairs. In fact Indofest is actually supported by the Indonesian government through their tourism department, and they contribute money to that support.

We know that the friendship is there, we know that the relationship is there, but what do we see under this government? A ripping up of that engagement, a lack of concentration on the strategy and the commitment. What we need from this government is leadership. We need to have a strategic plan for how we build on these decades and decades of relationship building and not just rip it up and say that it was not a good idea because it was the former government's idea and they supported it.

We have seen the trade department's cut in numbers, cut in budget, and they continue to have more and more cuts as we go on. We are down to 2.8 per cent of goods as part of national export statistics, from a high of 4.5 per cent. This is before COVID. We were failing, we were going backwards, and now you are going to cut even more and more. I speak today to this motion and ask for the support of this house to celebrate and acknowledge our sister state relationship and the lack of leadership around continuing it and developing it as we go into the future.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (12:55): I move an amendment to the motion by the member for Ramsay by amending paragraphs (b) and (c) for the motion to read:

(a) acknowledges South Australia's longstanding sister state relationship with West Java, Indonesia;

(b) recognises the potential to further strengthen trade relationships across the ASEAN region; and

(c) recognises the Marshall Liberal government's strategic approach in growing trade with key international markets.

I rise to speak on the proposed amended motion. It is important to acknowledge the important relationship that South Australia has with our trading partners. We know that we have a number of sister city relationships with trading partners. Some are economic and some are diplomatic. Through these challenging times for trade—I am referring to the COVID-19 restrictions in particular—a very vital part of South Australia's economy has been brought almost to a standstill. We have been somewhat fortunate. We have seen limited access into some countries but now we are seeing an increased ability for South Australian merchandise exports in particular to have a stream out of this state to slowly reignite the export economy.

By way of background, the South Australian government and West Java signed a memorandum of understanding in 1997 based on the desire to develop cooperation to create mutual benefit to both parties in terms of developing the private sector. The MOU expired in 2007, but in 2015 a revived sister state MOU with West Java was signed for a period of five years to September 2020. Given the MOU will expire in September, the government is currently reviewing that agreement. The Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, ratified earlier this year by the Morrison Liberal government, is an opportunity to deepen trade with Indonesia, especially for South Australian ag sectors and exporters.

The South Australian government is committed to strengthening the state's trade and investment with the South-East Asia region and has committed to opening an office in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. This office will lead to trade and investment work across the region, including Indonesia and its West Java province. We understand that Indonesia and South-East Asia have a huge potential and a massive population that is looking for a more middle-class demand for food, and those merchandise exports are there for South Australia to capitalise on.

In my previous role in opposition, as the shadow minister for trade, I put forward a policy to reverse the previous Labor government's closure of our overseas trade network by investing in new offices in our key market areas of China, North Asia, the US, the Middle East and the ASEAN region, and we believe it is important to have people on the ground constantly talking to customers and forming longstanding relationships. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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