Interview with David Lipson, ABC RN Breakfast

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO NATIONAL BREAKFAST WITH DAVID LIPSON
MONDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2023 

SUBJECTS: EU trade talks, resumption of trade with China and the National Emergency Management Stockpile
  
DAVID LIPSON: Well, for more than five years, Australia and the European Union have been trying to hammer out a free trade agreement without much success. Agriculture's been one of the major sticking points, with industry on both sides saying no deal was better than a flawed one. Well, it seems they may get their wish. Last ditch talks due to be held in Osaka have collapsed before they even began, with neither side apparently willing to compromise. Murray Watt is the Minister for Agriculture. He joins me now. Welcome back to the program.

MURRAY WATT: Good morning, David. Good to be with you.

DAVID LIPSON: Are these talks now dead?

MURRAY WATT: Well, certainly we haven't been able to make progress at this latest round of negotiations and I had a lengthy chat with Don Farrell, the Trade Minister, who's in Osaka spoke to him last night. What Don has said and remains our view, is that we would like to do a deal with the EU, but unfortunately, they haven't been prepared to put on the table a significantly better offer than what they've offered before. So, what that means is that one day we'd like to think that we can enter a deal with the EU, but I think it's going to be quite some time. The EU next year will go into its election cycle. It's always much harder for countries and regions to negotiate these sorts of trade agreements on the eve of elections. So, I think it will be quite some time before any Australian Government or any EU leadership is able to negotiate a deal. And that's a bit of a shame for both Australia and the EU.

DAVID LIPSON: So, clearly the talks have collapsed. Why?

MURRAY WATT: In short, from Australia's point of view, the EU has not budged significantly from the offer it put on the table three months ago. You'll remember that about three months ago, negotiations didn't proceed because the EU wasn't offering enough, particularly when it comes to agriculture. And they've come back now with essentially the same offer with a couple of tweaks there. We've been utterly consistent throughout this process that we would only enter a free trade agreement with the EU if it was in Australia's national interest, and in particular, if it offered new, commercially meaningful access to the European market for Australian agriculture. And that hasn't happened. So, as with any negotiation, it takes two parties to reach an agreement. Don went to Osaka looking to do an agreement and make an agreement, but unfortunately, we just didn't get the movement on the EU side that was required for this deal to be in Australia's national interest.

DAVID LIPSON: What about the Australian side? Were Australian negotiators willing to give enough of what the EU wanted?

MURRAY WATT: We made a number of concessions throughout the process and, again, we were willing to do that in Osaka. Obviously, up to a point, we're not ever going to be doing a deal where we sell out Australian producers or sell out the Australian national interest altogether, but we were willing to make some concessions, and the EU was aware of that. But I'm not sure whether it was about the impending election cycle that's coming in the EU or the political influence of their farmer lobbies. But we just weren't able to see the EU increase its offer for things like beef, sheep, dairy, sugar, enough for us to think that this deal was in Australia's national interest.

DAVID LIPSON: It's a huge, huge market, and a deal - a good deal at least, would have had huge benefits for Australian farmers and exporters. Are you personally disappointed?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I am disappointed that we weren't able to reach a deal with the EU. As you say David, it is a large, high-value market and that's exactly why Don went to Osaka looking to reach an agreement. He and I had many discussions together about what would be an acceptable deal for Australian agriculture. He and I personally met with representatives of Australia's agricultural groups on many occasions to nut out what would be an acceptable offer, and we were prepared to compromise. We didn't expect to get everything, but unfortunately, that hasn't happened. So, I guess what we do from here is, as I say, in future, it may be that we can resume negotiations, but I think that will be some time away. But in the meantime -

DAVID LIPSON: How long?

MURRAY WATT: Well, it's difficult to say. As I say, the EU elections will be next year. I can't see them being in a position to resume negotiations before that. We've made clear to them that we think it's unlikely to occur within this current term of the Australian Parliament as well. So, it could be some time. And there's a reason that no government has been able to reach an agreement with the EU up until now. As you say, these negotiations have been going on for many years. The EU takes a very strong stand. It's a very protectionist market when it comes to agriculture, and they weren't prepared to budge enough for it to be in our interests.

But I guess the other thing that I would say is that you will have seen, and your listeners will have seen, that our government has done an enormous amount of work to open up new markets for agriculture. We've obviously gone a long way to stabilise the relationship with China. We've now been able to get China to lift about $18 billion worth of its trade impediments that it had on Australian agriculture. And we've seen trade resume in things like barley, horticulture, cotton, hay, other things as well. But in addition to that, we've been opening markets in a number of other countries. In fact, in the last year, we've opened new markets or reduced tariffs in over 100 different cases. And that's delivering up to about five and a half billion dollars worth of value for Australian producers. So, that's probably where we'll be putting even more of our effort going forward.

DAVID LIPSON: You mentioned a few items that have had trade restrictions lifted by China, what about wine? They've agreed to review the wine tariffs, but there are other Australian products too, like lobster, that have still been effectively blocked. When can we expect that to change?

MURRAY WATT: Well, obviously that's a decision for China, but we keep advocating the need for that to change immediately. Really, ever since we were elected, we've been advocating for the relief of those trade barriers across each of those different commodities. As I say, we've made good progress with most of them, but there do remain a couple of commodities where we still see those trade barriers lobster, some beef and sheep, abattoirs are still blocked from exporting to China.

But I can tell you that I've raised those in meetings directly with the Chinese Agriculture Minister. I know that Don Farrell has done that with his counterpart, the Trade Minister from China, and many of our other Ministers have done so as well. And in addition to those Ministerial level representations, we have regularly had officials from the Department of Agriculture lobbying their counterparts in China to try to satisfy whatever China's requirements are there. I would like to think that as each of these different commodities is resolved, that we can move on to the next one. And I know that representations have been made again on matters like lobster, beef and sheep, since we were able to get that agreement with China about wine. So, I'm optimistic that we can get there and we'll keep working hard until we do.

DAVID LIPSON: Minister, moving on to your other portfolio in emergency management. Obviously, we've got these bushfires still going in Queensland. Yesterday, you announced the new National Emergency Management Stockpile, which will include temporary accommodation. Can you just explain what that temporary accommodation is and how many of those will be available this season?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, you will have seen, David, that really since we've been elected about 18 months ago, the Albanese government has been doing a huge amount of work to make sure that Australia is much better prepared for future disasters than we were in the past. We created one United National Emergency Management Agency. We've created a large Disaster Ready Fund to invest in disaster. Mitigation Yesterday's announcement was another step towards preparedness by creating Australia's first ever National Emergency Management Stockpile. What that means is that when you do have disasters hit, obviously the states and territories often have to scramble looking for temporary accommodation or water purification equipment or other things like that to support people. And we felt that there was a responsibility at the national level to supplement what the states and territories have available.

So, yesterday, we announced the signing of a contract with Humanihut, a South Australian based organisation, to supply temporary accommodation in emergency situations that will start flowing immediately and is available to states and territories to use. And what it means is that by the 30th of June next year, we'll have enough temporary accommodation at the federal level to accommodate over 700 individuals and over 1400 emergency personnel because sometimes we need temporary accommodation for them as well. So, I think that will go a long way to making sure that the states and territories have the resources they need to accommodate people. Because if you've lost your home, if you've lost everything, the minimum you need is a roof over your head. And this will provide people with temporary shelter in their hour of need.

DAVID LIPSON: Murray Watt, Minister for Agriculture and Emergency Management. Thanks so much for your time.

MURRAY WATT: Good to talk, David.