Sally Sara, Host: Well, turning to federal politics and there's allegedly division within the Coalition over the proposed free trade deal struck between Australia and the European Union earlier this year. Late last week Nationals leader Matt Canavan claimed both Coalition parties are against the deal as written, but multiple senior Liberals have told the ABC the matter has not been considered by shadow cabinet or been discussed in the joint party room. Meanwhile, farmers are today urging the government to renegotiate the terms. Don Farrell is the federal Minister for Trade and Tourism and Special Minister for State. Minister, welcome back to breakfast.
Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism: Great to be with you.
Host: On News24, your ministerial colleague Tim Ayres asked if the Liberals are going to quote be led by the nose by what he described as fanatics led by Senator Canavan. Do you see it that way? Are these concerns fanatical?
Minister: Look, I am deeply concerned that the Nationals, and let's face it, there's only four of them in the Senate, are trying to pull the Coalition, or sorry the Liberal Party, into a position of opposing our new EU Free Trade Agreement. And so, I ask the Liberals to really deeply consider whether they want to be in a position to oppose a free trade agreement. Angus Taylor in his maiden speech said he supported free trade. Most of the Liberals that I speak to either in the Senate or in the lower house tell me that the party supports free trade. And so what we're saying to Mr. Taylor is stand up to Mr. Canavan on this occasion because to defeat a new free trade agreement with the Europeans would be an act of economic self-harm for Australia. This is a really good agreement for Australia. It's 10 – it starts out at $10 billion worth of new trade right across the board. And it's supported by virtually every employer group in this country. But Sally, it very quickly rises to $30 billion because of the critical minerals provisions in this agreement. Our critical minerals, if this agreement is approved, will go into the European Union tariff free. All of our competitors currently pay a tariff and will continue to pay a tariff. So, this is an agreement that's too good to refuse. And I'm asking Mr. Taylor, don't support Senator Canavan in going off an economic cliff on this one. Support Australian business who overwhelmingly, Sally, overwhelmingly support this agreement. And we need to find friends right now in the international space. You've seen what has been happening in the United States with the reintroduction of tariffs. As a government, we achieve prosperity for our community by the removal of tariffs. And so, what we say is, look, this is a good agreement for Australia, please support it.
Host: Minister, earlier this morning I spoke with the President of the National Farmers Federation, Hamish McIntyre. He says he's particularly concerned about the portion of the EU Australia Free Trade Agreement on beef exports. Let's take a quick listen.
Hamish McIntyre, National Farmers Federation President: You know we've received an allocation of about 30 to 38,000 tonnes that'll be phased in over the next 10 years. So, comparing to close to a million tonnes we received for the UK agreement, it just highlights how low it is. And the mercantile group from South America and New Zealand, for instance, have been able to negotiate much higher volumes. So, we do appreciate the hard work our negotiating team did, but just because they are such long-term agreements, we'd rather no agreement at this point in time.
Host: That's the NFF President, Hamish McIntyre there. Are those concerns valid and is it best to have no deal at all?
Minister: Look, the short answer to that, Sally, is no. And anybody thinks, I mean, I just listened to your report on what's going on in France. Anybody who thinks there's any chance of renegotiating this agreement, particularly with what's going on in France at the moment. What happened a couple of weeks ago in terms of elections in Germany is kidding themselves. Some of the things that Mr. -- The NFF said simply aren't true. Our deal based on countries is better than the South American deal. And of course, the South American deal hasn't yet gone through the European Parliament. It's possible that it never does. But it's also possible that if we can act quickly here, Sally, we can get our agreement up before the South American agreement and that would give us a very significant economic advantage. What the beef industry said to me before I went into these most recent negotiations was, Don, we want $3 billion worth of new trade for beef and lamb. I got them $2 billion worth of new trade. Now, okay, I accept that it wasn't $3 billion, but one section of the Australian economy that doesn't get everything that they want can't say to the rest of the Australian economy, well, because we didn't get everything we wanted, you're going to get nothing of what you want. This agreement is worth $10 billion. It's good for farmers because they do get all of their products now into Europe tariff free --
Host: -- Do you think that the farmers' organisations are the best judge of what might be good for farmers.
Minister: Well, look, I followed their advice in 2023 and rejected the proposal that was on offer. And I said to them, look, I won't accept an offer, unless it's better than the one that was made there. So, they knew full well what was happening. We kept them informed. My job is not just to look after farmers, and I believe I've done that. Understand this, Sally, when I came to this job five years ago, we sold $9 billion worth of beef internationally. Last year we sold $18 billion worth of beef. So, our beef trade has doubled in the time of this Albanese Government. And I think I have been looking after the beef industry and I'll continue to look after them. But my job is to represent the national interest, not just one section of the Australian economy. And that's why you would have seen over the weekend, ACCI has come out in support of it. All of the other business organisations, the AIG, the BCA, all of them are very strongly supporting this agreement because all of those organisations know just how good this is for the Australian economy. And Sally, the most important thing is Australia relies on free trade. Our prosperity has been built on the back of free trade. We need right now to send a message to the rest of the world. Look, Australia supports free trade. We don't want you to go down the path of tariffs and protectionism. That's the wrong way for Australia. I think it's the wrong way for America. And we'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks about what the American people think about the policies of reintroduction of tariffs --
Host: -- Minister, very briefly, can some terms of the agreement be renegotiated? Is there any room here?
Minister: Look, this has been going for 10 years. It started under Matthias Cormann, a Liberal Senator. Simon Birmingham had a crack at it. He couldn't get it through. Dan Tehan tried to get it through. We've been going for 10 years. And at a certain point, Sally, you have to say, look, we've got to either accept or reject this offer. I say that it's overwhelmingly in the interest of the Australian people to accept this offer. This is a good deal for Australian business and Australian workers and this is our chance to accept it because we won't get another one. The Europeans won't come back to us and say, oh, okay, well, you want something different. They made very, very significant concessions to get this agreement. As I said, look, I would not have accepted the agreement in 2023. They significantly improved every aspect of this agreement in these negotiations. And it's my job now to sell it to the Australian people. I believe the Australian people do support it, but more importantly, sell it to my colleagues in the Senate, who I'm hoping will see that this is very much in our national interests.
Host: Don Farrell. We'll need to leave it there. Thank you for your time this morning.
Minister: Thanks, Sally.