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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-22 Daily Xml
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Overseas Trade Offices

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:41): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is opening new markets for our exporters by investing in our overseas office network?

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:41): I thank the member for MacKillop for his question. Of course, MacKillop is very important for food, wine and agriculture exports. Certainly, in my visits down there with the member for MacKillop, the industry have said how important it is for them to be able to get access to not only existing export markets but also new export markets, especially established ones.

We talked about the United Kingdom. No doubt business not only in MacKillop but all throughout South Australia will have warmly welcomed the announcement last week of the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement in principle that Prime Minister Scott Morrison or his counterpart the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced. That's some fantastic news for our premium food, wine and agriculture exporters here in South Australia. It will also give encouragement for those who are looking to export to also export as well.

In our London office, we are heavily focused on not only trade but also investment, so we will look to leverage that free trade agreement once it's in operation but also, in anticipation, work towards what the results and the outcomes could be for South Australian business. The UK, of course, in the last 12 months to April, has seen $400 million of exports, and that's a part of the record $12.5 billion of exports in the last 12 months to April from South Australia. That's the highest ever in South Australia's history and really is a massive vote of confidence in our exporters here in South Australia, so we as a government are continually looking to see how we can help them with on-the-ground presence in some key markets.

Of course, Brexit is one of the reasons for the UK's renewed interest in Australia and in South Australia. The European Union is also going to be important. We will be looking in anticipation to get a free trade agreement with the European Union as well, hopefully along the lines of this UK free trade agreement. Of course, we don't want to have a cold start, wait for that to be signed and then start looking. We are keen at leaning in straightaway on this.

It was great news last week when we were able to give more confidence to exporters here in South Australia that we will be setting up, as a Marshall government, a European office based right in Paris to further help our South Australian exporters export into what is a key export market in Europe—$700 million of exports consistently over the last five years, and that's each year. That's in a range of sectors as well.

I have talked about food, wine and agriculture, but there's also defence. We've got great synergies with France. The massive Attack class submarine is being built here in Port Adelaide with the Naval Group. We want all South Australian businesses that subcontract into those primes to also be able to export, and this is going to be a great opportunity to grow their exports.

Of course, renewable energy is also a massive source of investment here. I talked last week about Project EnergyConnect and how that's creating massive investment here. French company Neoen are investing $3 billion here. We want to use that trade office to further boost investment here in South Australia. Space—a massive opportunity; we are the nation's space capital. We want to work with the European Space Agency around opportunities there.

This is fantastic news for South Australian exporters. We will look to work alongside them as a government with this trade office network not only in Europe and the UK but, as I have talked previously, in the massive markets of the US, in Asia and in China. So this is a way that we are looking to grow the economy here. In addition to the fact that we've got a fantastic place to live—Australia's number one most livable city, the third most in the world—of course, we need an economy to support that. That's what our export plan in South Australia is aimed at doing.

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