Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell: It's great to be here this morning at my favourite eating place, which is the Adelaide Central Market. I used to come here in the 1950’s with my mother, and we used to go people's stores and have the experience of the wonderful food and vegetables, and wine that's on offer here at the Central Market. I'm with two of my very good friends, Chris Picton - Chris is now the equivalent of the Trade Minister - they call it something different in South Australia after the election. They call it State Development, but a big part of this state's development is growing diversified trading market, and it's great to be here with Chris and to congratulate him on his new appointment, and of course his re-election. Also with me today is Kyri from the seafood industry. Throughout all of the issues of getting crayfish back into China, Kyri stood with the government. And about 18 months ago for the first time, we managed to get our crayfish back into the Chinese market, and of course we're now selling more crayfish into China than we were before the bans took place.
The reason we've asked you along here today is to talk about the newly signed Australia-European Free Trade Agreement. This was signed in Canberra between President Von der Leyen from Europe, and of course Prime Minister Albanese from Australia. This new free trade agreement represents about $10 billion dollars’ worth of new sales in the first year of this agreement and rising very rapidly.
What it does for the first time in about 50 years, is to give Australian agriculture, Australian wine, Australian manufacturing and most importantly, our critical minerals access to the European market, by and large tariff-free. So, all the wonderful food and all the wonderful wine that we produce here in South Australia has the opportunity of going into the European market, largely tariff-free for the first time.
South Australia will be a big beneficiary of all of this food, wine and other products, because of the quality and the value that you get from Australian products. But just to give you an example with seafood, we haven't been able to get significant amounts of seafood into the European market for more than 50 years. Now, under this new agreement, seafood that currently has up to a 22% tariff will get into the European market tariff-free. So, just as we've managed to get our product back into China, we'll also be able to get it back into the European market. Why is this so important? Well, at the moment, what countries like Australia need to do is to diversify our trading relationships. And so, in addition to getting our $20 billion dollars’ worth of trade back into China, we've got new agreements with the United Kingdom, new agreements with India, new agreements with the United Arab Emirates. And of course, now this is a really big one - into Europe. 450 million people, a $31 trillion economy, and it represents wonderful opportunities for Australia and particularly South Australia.
Just as we've done over the last four years, the Albanese government will work closely with the Malinauskas’ Government to make sure that the words in a trade agreement get translated to actual sales, so that we can get out there and make sure that our wonderful food, our wonderful wine, our good value products are getting into the European market. The world is starting to divide into two groups: those that believe in protectionism, and those that believe in free and fair trade. The Albanese government and I know the Malinauskas government, are very much focused on free and fair trade. That's how we increase the prosperity of our businesses. If you're an outward-facing Australian business, your profits are going to be higher, but more importantly, the wages of your staff are going to be higher.
So, we look forward to the implementation of this agreement very, very quickly, and Australia and South Australia will be taking advantage of this new agreement. I'd like to now turn to my good friend, the newly minted State Development Minister, Chris Picton. Chris.
SA State Development Minister, Chris Picton: Thank you very much, Don. And firstly, can I congratulate Don and the work that you have done to secure this agreement. This is an agreement which has been talked about for years and years, well over a decade, but no one was able to get it done. And Don has spearheaded the negotiations and the signing of this agreement. And why is this so significant? Because this is such a huge part of the world that was effectively closed off for our exporters.
Here in South Australia or anywhere else across the country, premium food and wine exporters weren't able to get that market access into Europe and now they will be able to. Such a huge percentage of our exports will now be able to enter the EU and be able to be sold into the EU without tariffs. And that's a tremendous opportunity for our exporters to grow the pie, to grow what we can export. And we've got Kyri here and of course one of those huge opportunities is in South Australian premium seafood. We want to see Europeans dining on our premium seafood as well as all of our other premium food and wine products because of this agreement. So we'll have people in Lisbon dining on lobster, people in Paris dining on prawns, you name it, we will have the opportunity for our exporters to gain access to a market they've never had before. And now it gets to our team working with exporters here in South Australia to try to seize the opportunities that lay before us in Europe to make the most of this new agreement.
So, congratulations, Don. We're really excited about the opportunity we see here in South Australia - how our export performance over the past four years has been dramatically different to what's come before and we've got ambitions to grow that even further. I'll now pass to Kyri to tell us about what this means for our seafood exports.
Seafood Industry Australia, Kyri Toumazos: I would like to start off by really personally thanking Minister Don Farrell and all the work that he has done in this space. Minister Chris Picton, looking forward to really working closely with him over the next few years to actually enhance seafood and exports into Europe. Europe has been an amazing market historically for us, but over the years, with introduction of tariffs, we have reduced exports into that region. But we are very excited and looking forward to working hand in glove with government to get back into the levels that we were previously. And also, this is an opportunity not only for us to diversify our market, but to also grow all seafood exports into a really big market such as Europe.
It's all species, it's all sectors in seafood as well as agri that's going to benefit from this. And we have a perfect platform here to work with Minister Farrell, and Minister Picton, in this space for us to enhance the profile of Australian seafood, but in particular for us here in South Australia, we are very, very encouraged. So thank you to the Albanese Labour Government, Malinauskas’ Labor Government, and working together with Chris and Don on this over the next few years. So thank you.
Journalist: Kyri, in the context of the last few years, in the cases that your industry has faced and the algal bloom especially, how significant is this development?
Kyri Toumazos: This has been something that has been on our radar for a long time. We, again, the same challenges that we had getting back into China. It's that collaboration between government and industry that actually delivers these outcomes. Let government do it in the way that government knows how to do it. And Don himself has really, you know, led the way in that space. This is enormous for us. It just gives us another massive avenue. It's a lot of, it's a big market, it's an affluent market, it's a market that we know from historical, so for us it's just exciting.
Journalist: What's the demand like?
Kyri Toumazos: There is always demand for Australian seafood. Our seafood is the highest quality on the planet, and there is always opportunity in every country, especially when you haven't got trade barriers to worry about. It just empowers businesses to do well.
Journalist: [inaudible] good news for the industry. How concerned are you about the impact of the fuel crisis on getting products overseas?
Minister Farrell: Look, obviously it's a serious issue right at the moment. It's not just an Australian issue or a South Australian issue, it's now a worldwide issue as a result of the war in the Middle East. The big issue from our point of view is ensuring supply into the Australian market. So those people who need petrol or diesel, or for that matter, airline fuel have got access to those products. And that's what the Albanese government is working on at the moment. How we can ensure greater supply into the Australian market.
Journalist: So, it's not so much impacting in exports.
Minister Farrell: Look, obviously if this war goes on, it will have an impact on exports in the longer term. We're hoping that in terms of the things that we can control, that is the supply of fuel into Australia, that we can address those issues for Australian businesses.
Journalist: How are you going to appease Australian farmers who are unsatisfied with the new trade deal?
Minister Farrell: From what I've seen in the last week, overwhelmingly, all Australian industry is backing this agreement. But in particular, 95% of all agriculture is supporting it. In every agreement, there will always be somebody who's a little bit disappointed in the outcome. My job is to represent the whole of the country, the whole of the nation, and get the best deal possible for Australia. And that's what we've done with this agreement. A $10 billion new agreement, great for the country, great for South Australia. And I think in time, all of the agricultural producers who benefit from this agreement will ultimately say this was the right decision.
Journalist: Is the door still open to make any changes to the agreement?
Minister Farrell: Well, for the time being, what we've agreed is what will be implemented. However, unlike any other agreement that the Europeans have ever entered into, this agreement has a review clause in a few years' time, and that'll give us an opportunity to, I think, go back to the Europeans and say, look, you've seen how good the quality and the value of Australian produce is. Here's an opportunity to take some more.
Journalist: But at the moment it's locked in as is.
Minister Farrell: Locked in as is.
Journalist: On fuel, do you support temporarily halving the fuel exercise to help [inaudible]?
Minister Farrell: Look, fortuitously, I'm not the Treasurer or the Prime Minister. They are issues for them. But look, what we support is supporting Australian businesses to ensure that they can get the fuel that they need to carry on business. For tourists who might be thinking about going away in Easter, making sure that they've got access to the fuel that they need. That's the sort of thing that this government is looking at doing.
Journalist: Would halving the fuel exercise play a role in ensuring you've got fuels there?
Minister Farrell: We're looking at everything that might assist the increase in supply in this country. And we will do whatever we need to do to ensure that Australians continue to get access to the petrol, to diesel, to airline fuel.
Journalist: The Albanese government was quick to support US-Israeli strikes in Iran. Do you regret this, given the economic consequences we're feeling across the country?
Minister Farrell: I think it was essential that the world deprived, Iran, of its ability to produce nuclear weapons. So that was the basis upon which Australia indicated that we would support what is happening in Iran. In addition to that, we were asked by our good allies, the United Arab Emirates, a country that we recently reached a free trade agreement with. We supported them in self-defence. We want this war to end as quickly as we possibly can and for things to return to normal as absolutely and as quickly as they possibly can.
Journalist: Maybe just one for [inaudible]. What other industries, you've talked a bit about seafood, what other industries will be of most benefit under this new deal in South Australia?
Minister Picton: I think clearly all of our premium food and wine will be on the table. This has been an incredibly protectionist market into the EU, and now we've got the opportunity to really enter markets that we haven't played a big role in. So, wine, all of our different exports that we have from things like almonds and getting them into the EU will be critical. But obviously as well, all of the minerals exports that we have in South Australia as well, have the opportunity. We talk a lot about our copper industry here in South Australia and that's a tremendous opportunity too. So, I can't overstate how much of an opportunity it is now have a whole new part of the world open up to this that wasn't there on the table before. It means greater diversification, it means greater growing of the pie of exports [inaudible].
Journalist: And I know it's only been a few days, but what are you hearing from producers about the impact of the food crisis and their approaches?
Minister Picton: Yeah, similar to what Don was saying, this is obviously a concern in terms of what's happening around the world, and that's why us as a State Government are working hand in hand with the Federal Government at a National Cabinet meeting on Monday morning. We want to work very collaboratively with the Federal Government to take every possible measure that we can to make sure that we can support the Australian economy, support our industrial base and support motorists, and supply as well as possible.
Journalist: There's one on your remit now. Are you the Minister responsible for AUKUS?
Minister Picton: I've got responsibility for Defence Industries. I think it's fair to say that in terms of South Australia's role here, that the Premier has a very leading role. He has an office of AUKUS in DPC, but we through Defence SA, in my role will be supporting him in making sure that we are preparing for AUKUS as well as all the other defence and space opportunities that lie before us. We are the defence state here in South Australia, we're very proud of that and we think that there's so much opportunity before in AUKUS, but within a whole range of other areas to grow. Thank you very much.