Mr BARRESI (3:01 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Trade. Would the minister inform the House of measures announced in this year's budget for Australian exporters? How will these measures help exporters take advantage of free trade agreements the government has negotiated?

Mr VAILE (Minister for Trade) —I thank the member for Deakin for his question. I am sure he is aware that as part of the budget the Treasurer brought down a couple of weeks ago there was an extra $19.6 million allocated to Austrade to assist exporters to take advantage of the bilateral free trade agreements that we have negotiated over the last couple of years with Singapore, the United States and Thailand and also to take advantage of the opportunities since China's accession to the WTO and the work we are doing with China in scoping the possibility of a free trade agreement.

The objective of the government is to open up new opportunities for Australia's exporters so that we can grow the economy and provide extra economic activity in the community which delivers jobs. That has been happening under the guidance of this government since 1996, and over a million jobs have been created. This is another policy that is aimed clearly at generating good jobs—and jobs in export industries on average are better paid and under better conditions and provide better training for employees. So we are going to allocate this extra funding to Austrade to work with the private sector, with the business community, to seek out opportunities as a result of those free trade agreements. Those new export opportunities equal new export sales, which equals new jobs for Australians, particularly young Australians, in the Australian economy.

It is interesting to note some of the analysis that has been done on some of the agreements. For the information of the House, the actual text of the Australia-Thailand free trade agreement is now publicly available, along with the economic modelling on that agreement. That shows a benefit to the Australian economy of $US2.4 billion over 20 years, which is certainly a very good outcome for the Australian economy. I note and understand that the Australian Labor Party are going to support the Australian government on the Australia-Thailand free trade Agreement with that sort of benefit to the bottom line. Yet that free trade agreement and the benefits that accrue to the economy from it are dwarfed by the opportunities and the benefits that will be delivered to the Australian economy as a result of the US free trade agreement, arguably $US6.1 billion after 10 years. It begs the question why the Leader of the Opposition would be prepared to support a trade agreement that is going to deliver $2.4 billion and yet he will not support a trade agreement that is going to deliver $6.1 billion. If you convert that into job opportunities in the community and in our economy, it is many thousands of jobs. If the Leader of the Opposition is serious about generating new jobs, real jobs for Australians in exporting industries in Australia, he will get behind the government and support the United States free trade agreement.