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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-26 Daily Xml
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Premier's Trade Mission

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (14:25): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on his recent trade mission to Singapore and China?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:26): I thank the member for Davenport for her question. I know the member for Davenport cares greatly about jobs in our state. The member for Davenport has an appreciation for the fact that China is indeed South Australia's largest trading partner and has been for some time.

I am also familiar with the fact that the member for Davenport, like other members in this house, including the member for Mawson, as I am sure is the case for the member for Chaffey, along with the member for Schubert, recognises that China is a particularly important trading partner when it comes to the viticulture sector, along with the aquaculture sector represented by the member for Mount Gambier, the member for MacKillop and the member for Flinders, amongst others. I could start listing every member.

It is true to say that the lack of stability between the Australia-China relationship that has had to be endured over the course of the last few years has undoubtedly had a disproportionate impact on South Australian jobs more than any other jurisdiction in the country. South Australia being one of the most productive producers of wine in the country, along with high-quality seafood, along with barley and other materials that were subject to tariffs, the impact has been real.

I recall something that has stuck with me when I spent a bit of time in the member for Chaffey's electorate during the course of summer in and around the floods—that I probably spoke to as many people concerned about the price of grapes as they were concerned about the flooding event at the time. I found that rather instructive. Here was a decision being taken in another hemisphere but was having an immediate First World impact on good hardworking South Australians. It is not just the big guys; it's often the smaller players who get the hardest hit in these circumstances, and I am particularly thinking of the growers.

We do have a responsibility as a government, as this parliament does more broadly, to capitalise on any opportunity that comes our way to address those challenges. The more recent stabilisation of the relationship between Australia and China does present a possibility that tariffs could yet be eased, in the same form they have for barley, for wine and for seafood. Anything that the South Australian state government can do to grease those wheels of momentum is something that we want to actively engage in.

It is also true that international student entry that dried up during the course of the pandemic is now starting to reflow to South Australia in a material way that is absolutely essential not just to our universities, not just to the research and development funding that then provides, not just to the soft diplomacy effort that international students bring but also to the labour and the engagement that are so critical to our state.

To be in China with just under 40 delegates representing those respective sectors having a full-frontal full-court press on the Chinese government advocating our claim was extremely useful. More than that, I was able to be party to a number of meetings where relationships were being re-established and potentially grown to ensure that the trade opportunity remains vibrant, real and material.

We desperately await and anticipate the Prime Minister's visit to China later this year, when we cross our fingers that we might see a change in position from the Chinese government, but we thank them for the hospitality they showed the whole delegation and look forward to fruitful engagement and negotiations over the weeks ahead.

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