Mr HUNT (9:23 PM) —I rise in support of a system that will create jobs for low-paid manufacturing, service and agricultural workers in my electorate. That program is the creation of a free trade agreement with the United States. The reason why that is important is very simple. It will do two things. Firstly, it will provide new export markets for products from my electorate of Flinders—for dairy producers in Lang Lang, in Clyde and on the Mornington Peninsula; and for steel producers from Hastings, which employs over 1,400 members of the electorate. All of these people stand to benefit directly, squarely and absolutely from a clear and unequivocal free trade agreement with the United States. It is disappointing that there are some who stand against that, because that is a very clear way forward.

Secondly, a free trade agreement will provide the benefit of lower input costs through many of the imports that go into Australian businesses being available more cheaply and more effectively. Therefore, the cost of doing business will be cheaper and the markets available for our products will be broader and more readily accessible. That is the theory. What about the practice? Firstly, you need to look at the fact that the Minister for Trade has just returned from Thailand, from the APEC meeting of trade ministers where 20 of the 21 countries involved are engaged in some way in developing bilateral free trade agreements. They do this in the absence of full international pressure for further liberalisation under the WTO. That process is continuing through the World Trade Organisation but it is slow.

In the meantime, we seek to do what other countries are doing: to advance the cause and process of trade liberalisation which creates jobs, brings wealth and provides better opportunities for ordinary people in ordinary homes throughout Australia and, in particular, around the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port. If that is happening in other countries, why should Australia and the United States do this? We see that the Centre for International Economics has developed a comprehensive and compelling case that a free trade agreement with the United States would boost Australian GDP annually by 0.4 per cent, or approximately $4 billion. We are talking about a $4 billion boost to the level of gross domestic product in Australia. That in turn creates an awful lot of jobs, and these jobs mean practical developments in the lives of individuals.

What particular industries are set to benefit from a free trade agreement? What is being discussed at the moment is the elimination of tariffs and barriers to trade between Australia and the United States on the broadest possible basis. That includes beef, dairy products, sugar, peanuts and cotton. Within my electorate, beef and dairy products play a very important role. Kernot, Clyde, Devon Meadows, Five Ways and Koo Wee Rup are all agricultural and dairy areas and all stand to benefit from a free trade agreement with the United States.

Similarly, as I mentioned earlier, the removal of any barriers to Australian steel will create extraordinary potential for Australian steel producers, who are already highly competitive but are restricted in many ways. If they have full, complete and unfettered access to the United States so that they can compete solely on the basis of their quality and price and not their country of origin, then workers who live in Somerville, Tyabb, Baxter, Crib Point and Hastings and work at BHP Steel's Western Port plant in Hastings will have the chance of greater income, job security, personal advancement and take-home pay. That is what a free trade agreement is about.

I commend the notion of a free trade agreement with the United States to the House. I urge all members to support it. I hope that those who have shown equivocation consider the benefits to workers and ordinary citizens as they go about their lives. They stand to gain from the practical benefits of cheaper inputs into business and greater markets for their exports.