CHINA — TRADE
RELATIONS
886. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
Has the Premier used his personal and industry links with China to argue for a better
deal for Western Australian primary producers; and, if not, why not?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
Once again, I do not get how, after
four years, the Leader of the Opposition does not listen to the answer and then
recalibrate her supplementary question based on what I have just said. I will
repeat it to her: I have spoken to and communicated with the Prime Minister on
numerous occasions about this issue—and I mean numerous. He and I have
regular discussions about it. He has a bit of a different view from me. My view
is very much based upon the fact that I have been a long-term supporter of the
US alliance. I have served with US service people, actually, at various points
in time. I have gone to sea on American warships. I know a little bit about the
American alliance. I have been a long-term supporter of it. But we cannot just
say that we have an alliance; therefore, we are going to trash our trading
relationship. How does that help us? How does that help our country? We live in
the best state in a remarkable country. We are a very, very affluent people.
Working people in this country have the best conditions and incomes of anywhere in the world—small business people,
working people, ordinary people. This is an egalitarian country that does extremely well by world
standards. What is that based upon? It is based upon successful industries
and the fact that we can sell the products that we produce to other countries
around the world. The major country that we sell those products to is China.
We have a diversification strategy.
We are trying to diversify as much as we can around the world, but when the
largest market for some products—in fact, virtually the only market for
some products—is China, where do we diversify to? I had a meeting with
a US congressman a couple of years ago. He said that we needed to sell iron ore
elsewhere. I asked him where and he did not have an answer. There are not any
other Chinas. There is Japan, which has one-tenth of the population of China—a
bit less. There is Korea, which has one-twentieth the population of China.
There is the United States. China produces 12 times as much steel as the United
States, and half of the steel that the
United States produces is recycled steel, so its iron ore consumption is about
50 million tonnes per year. Chinese consumption of iron ore is about 900
million tonnes per year. That is what we are dealing with. My view is that we
need to be pragmatic and rational, and we need to act in the interests of Western
Australians and our jobs. If we do not and if we lose these international
markets, particularly our biggest market, it is a recipe for a loss of national
income, unemployment and reduced living standards in this country.