Doorstop, Parliament House

Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism: Lovely to see you on a beautiful Canberra morning here today. I'm here with a very good friend, the Agriculture Minister, Julie Collins, and Mike from the NFF. There's been some developments overnight in terms of progress on getting access to fuel and fertiliser. As you're aware, one of the departments that I'm responsible for, Export Finance Australia, has been scouring the world to make sure that Australia has enough fertiliser and enough fuel to keep our industry going, to keep our farmers going. And today I can announce that we have secured another 31,000 tonnes of fertiliser, and another 50 million litres of diesel. These are absolutely vital for farmers, and for miners in this country to keep our industry going. In the last few months we've been travelling the world to make sure that our relationships in our region, and around the world, are such that we can rely on our friends to continue to supply us with these important products. I was in France last week, I met with just about every major trading partner of Australia seeking their commitment to continue to support Australia in this most important area. We are well‑regarded right around the world for the way that we approach trade, the way that we honour our agreements with other countries, and I think that's going to result in a continued supply of these products into the future. We've seen overnight things can turn badly very quickly in the Middle East. We have to be prepared for the worst, and this is an action Government; we believe in doing things and solving problems. And that's why right now we are going around the world to ensure that we continue to get that important supply for fertiliser for our farmers, for diesel, for oil, for petrol and for airline fuel - and we're going to continue to do that. We're going to do absolutely everything we can do to ensure we continue to get those products. As I said, I'm here with my very good friend, the Agriculture Minister, Julie Collins. She's doing a fabulous job in this space, and I'd ask her to explain a bit more about these new developments.

Julie Collins, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: Thanks Minister, it's terrific to be here with our Trade Minister who has been helping to restore Australia's standing overseas and also the trading partnerships, and of course, Mike Guerin from the National Farmers' Federation. This is terrific news for our farmers. This is an additional 31,000 tonnes of fertiliser, urea. This now means that under Export Finance Australia, since this war began, we've been able to get around 240,000 tonnes of additional urea into the country. I had said last week that since the war started, we've now cleared for our biosecurity over a million tonnes of urea. For the entire growing season it's now 1.7 million tonnes of urea that has come into Australia. This is really important for our farmers because it provides them with some certainty in uncertain times and allows them to get on with their day jobs, and that is of course planting crops and keeping Australia's farming system and food system moving through. The additional diesel, of course, and fuel is also critically important, and what you've seen from our Government is, as Minister Bowen said on Saturday, is we have been determined to do everything we can do to shield Australians as much as possible from the outcomes of this war in the Middle East. It is impacting globally, and we're doing our very best to make sure that our farmers can keep farming. I'll hand over to Mike Guerin to say a few words.

Mike Guerin, National Farmers' Federation CEO: Thank you, Ministers. The National Farmers' Federation on behalf of every producer in Australia thanks the Albanese Government for the way we have worked so incredibly collaboratively since the Middle East crisis unfolded in ensuring getting fertilizer and fuel to farmers to continue producing food. While we still have challenges around both supply and cost of fertilizer and fuel, we are in a much better position through the collaborative work of this Government in scouring the world and ensuring we get as much fertilizer and fuel as has been onshore despite the challenges we have internationally. That collaboration's unprecedented, it's strong and it's ensuring our farmers can continue to plant and harvest with some sense that we're doing everything that we can to keep food on our supermarket shelves, keep our food security we've taken for granted for generations in front of every Australian. The National Farmers Federation thanks the Government for their work in this area.

Journalist: Minister, Labor's spooked by the rise of One Nation, isn't it?

Farrell: No.

Journalist: Then why is your party asking for donations to stop One Nation taking hold of the seats?

Farrell: Look, the Labor Party frequently ask for donations from our members.

Journalist: But you've mentioned One Nation specifically.

Farrell: I'm sure we've mentioned One Nation from time to time. I'm sure we've mentioned the Liberal Party from time to time. I'm sure we've mentioned the Nationals and the Greens from time to time. I don't think there's anything particularly unusual about the Labor Party saying to its members, "please support us", and that in my experience, 50 years of membership with the Labor Party this year, is a pretty frequent event.

Journalist: Minister, is Labor's budget to blame for the rise of One Nation?

Farrell: No.

Journalist: That's certainly what Angus Taylor says.

Farrell: One Nation votes started going up after the last election because of the division in the Liberal Party and the National Party. Their vote then increased again after the terrible events in Bondi. I've seen this before. Remembering that in 2016 Nick Xenophon, the polling showed that Nick was about to become the Premier of South Australia, his polling was so strong. What happened at the election? Well, he didn't win his seat. Populist parties in this country come and go, they rise and they fall. I don't think Labor has anything to fear from One Nation. They do have an impact on the Coalition, of course, because for every vote that the Coalition loses to One Nation they only get 80 per cent back in preferences. So to the extent that anybody should be worried about One Nation, it's the Coalition.

Journalist: Minister, a question on the tariffs. Have you spoken to anyone in the Trump Administration about these proposals, and if so who, and how high up in the White House?

Farrell: Which proposals?

Journalist: About the potential new tariffs coming from the Trump Administration?

Farrell: Yes, I met with Jamieson Greer, my equivalent, from the United States last Wednesday at the OECD Room in Paris. I've expressed to him how absolutely disappointed we are to have been included in this category, and said to him that we do not believe that it's appropriate to have Australia classified in this group. The final decision has not yet been made by the American Administration, that will be some weeks away. In the intervening period, we'll be processing our argument very strongly that we should not be in this category.

Journalist: Minister, is Australia prepared to take greater steps to tackle modern day slavery to avoid these tariffs?

Farrell: I don't see the two as being linked as such, but modern slavery is abhorrent. Australia does oppose modern slavery. We have a range of mechanisms to deal with this in Australia, and we'll use those mechanisms to do our level best to end modern slavery. It's a curse that the Government does not support, and we'll do whatever we can to end modern slavery.

Journalist: The Trump Administration has linked the two though, so are you prepared to negotiate on it?

Farrell: In what way?

Journalist: Prepared to negotiate with the Trump Administration?

Farrell: It's not a question of negotiations. I believe we've got a very, very good story to tell on modern slavery. I think we've got a piece of legislation that deals with it, we have criminal sanctions for people who breach it, we have an Anti‑slavery Commissioner. So I think when you look around the world at those countries that are doing something about modern slavery, we are one of those countries that is doing that.

Journalist: Were you given any indication in Paris of what the US would be willing to move on this?

Farrell: I've put my case as strongly as I could on behalf of Australia. We reject the suggestion that we should be linking with any countries that are not doing enough on modern slavery. We very strongly rejected that proposition. So the Americans are in no misunderstanding as to what Australia's position will be. Now they have their processes. We're going to work through their processes, and we'll be presenting the absolutely strongest case that Australia can that we should not be put into this category. And we continue to put the argument that we should not be subject to any tariffs by the United States. The United States sells twice as much to us as we sell to them. There's no justification at all for the United States to impose tariffs. One of the things that I was able to do in Paris last week - I met with my French counterpart and my Irish counterpart - both of them are committed to supporting our Free Trade Agreement with the EU. Now this is important because in the past they have opposed the agreement with the South Americans, and they blocked that, they've managed to block that. The good news is that they are supporting the Free Trade Agreement with Australia. This gives us another $10 billion worth of new trade and as far as Australia is concerned, we'll be going full speed ahead to endorse our side of the Free Trade Agreement.

Journalist: Minister, on the fuel and fertiliser deal, you said that the Government isn't going to stop these efforts to bring more of these products into Australia, diesel included. What's your sense of where we're up to in this fuel crisis? Are we closer to the end than we are to the start?

Farrell: Look, I'm the wrong person to ask that. There's only one person in the world that absolutely knows the answer to that question, Tom, unfortunately. I hope that we're getting towards the end, but even if we are, even if this dispute in the Middle East was to be resolved tomorrow, it will still be months before things return to normal. So the work that Export Finance does and continues to do in the weeks and months ahead will be absolutely vital to ensuring that we don't run out of any fertiliser, any petrol or any diesel, or any airline fuel.

Journalist: Minister Collins do you agree with your colleague that Labor has nothing to fear regarding the rise of One Nation?

Collins: We take everything really seriously in terms of, you know, the community sentiment. I think as the Prime Minister said yesterday, there is really an anti‑establishment sort of feel when people are doing it tough, and that's why in our budget we're addressing some of that intergenerational unfairness and inequity, and we're doing that by investing in terms of additional housing, we're doing it in terms of supporting students with the HECS write‑off we did last time. So we've been doing it in terms of Medicare and investments that we've been making in Medicare. We're about making sure that no Australian is left behind and that we lift everybody up.

Journalist: Minister, you mentioned the housing there, and this is a yes for either of you. There's some interesting numbers in The Australian this morning estimating how many people have been allowed into the country, how many migrants have come into the country per day since the Albanese Government was elected. It's more than 1,000 per day. Surely we're not building enough houses to house that number of people?

Collins: Australia hasn't been building enough houses for more than 40 years. So, you know, when you talk about the number of dwellings per person, we are down compared to the other OECD countries. When it comes to migration, you know, since the peak we've reduced about 45 per cent. Let's be clear about that, 45 per cent from its peak down in terms of migration. What we're about is investing record numbers, over $40 billion, and it's 47 billion in terms of housing right across the country to make sure more Australians can get a roof over their head.

Journalist: Minister Farrell, are you able to answer that?

Farrell: Look, we have an excellent Housing Minister in Clare O'Neil. As Minister Collins said, we haven't been building enough houses in this country for 40 years. This Government is focused on trying to build more houses, and I think as time goes by, you'll see that those houses will be built. I said before, we're an action Government. Sure, there's a problem right at the moment with the number of houses. We intend to fix that problem.

Journalist: Will you cut migration?

Farrell: Well, migration's already coming down. The spike in migration that in part has caused this problem was just after COVID. When we came to Government there was a million unprocessed applications to come to Australia. That figure spiked because people couldn't get here during COVID. We're now managing the number of migrants to ensure that there's a balance between what we need ‑ I mean we need migrants in this country because we need workers in particular areas. So just in my home State of South Australia we intend to build submarines. We'll need expert workers in that field, otherwise we won't be able to build those submarines. So there's got to be a balance here. There's got to be a balance between the number of people who we admit to this country, but at the same time we have to recognise that we've got to build more houses. So we understand the problem, and I think to the extent that we're able to, we're addressing those problems.

Journalist: Minister, just on the tariffs, have you got clarity on whether the proposed 12.5 per cent tariff will replace the 10 per cent tariff? Or is there a chance that they'll overlap?

Farrell: That's an excellent question. And that was the first question I asked my counterpart, Jamieson Greer, and I think based on his answer there is a possibility that for a couple of days the tariffs might overlap, but they don't intend to enforce that overlap. So it will either be the 10 per cent or it will be the 12.5 per cent. But as I said, our position to the Americans is it should be zero. We have a Free Trade Agreement with the United States which we honour, we don't apply tariffs to any goods that come in from the United States. We expect the United States to do exactly the same and honour our Free Trade Agreement and apply no tariffs to Australian goods.