I note the absence of any reference at all by Kim Beazley to his Trade "vision" in his budget response last night.  He did not come within cooee of recognising Australian exporters.

Laurie Brereton and Senator Peter Cook's pathetic bleat of the day before that the budget contained "no priority for foreign and trade policy in the Howard Government's plans for Australia", and that the "budget also confirms that Mr Downer and Mr Vaile have absolutely no clout in Cabinet" is shown as a complete sham

It is now obvious that theirs was a press release aimed at diverting attention from the total lack of any trade agenda in the Beazley response.  Still no sign of anything like a Trade policy.

Mr Brereton and Senator Cook apparently have so little clout among their Labor colleagues that they couldn't even get their portfolio mentioned in the budget reply, let alone any commitments.  This must all make Labor's Trade Spokesman-in-waiting, Kevin Rudd, very pleased.

The Coalition Government announced $750 million over five years to continue the Export Market Development Grants scheme, and Labor says that shows a lack of clout.  Quite obviously, with Mr Beazley announcing no plans for Trade, Mr Rudd can look forward to the rapid ascension he's been telling everyone about.

Australia's exporters earned $142 billion for this economy last year, and the least they deserve is some idea of whether one of the options Senator Conroy was talking about is reimposing the $3.5 billion tax burden on exporters this Government has removed.