Premier - Pick Up The The Phone To Your Mates
The Victorian Premier has been urged to pick up the phone to his good friends in the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship and request a change of attitude from them towards Australian trade.
Liberal Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, made the suggestion in the Victorian Parliament last week during the Chinese Government Block on Victorian Exports motion regarding the unjustified Chinese tariffs on Australian products.
“Country Victoria depends on the agricultural sector for its economic vitality. When China introduces tariffs on our agricultural products, rural Victoria bears the brunt”, Mrs McArthur said.
Victoria exports approximately $167 million worth of wine, $1 million worth of lobster and millions of dollars worth of barley, timber and wool to China every year.
“Maybe Bourke Street and Treasury Place will not even notice the changes, but for rural and regional Victoria, losing access to key export markets can be devastating.”
The Premier, Daniel Andrews, has previously celebrated his relationship with China in the establishment of the ill-conceived Belt and Road Initiative.
The Government has argued that the initiative will create jobs.
“Clearly it is a complete failure. These trade restrictions will cost jobs, not create them.
“This Labor Government has to decide whose side they wish to bat on: the Chinese communist dictatorship or Victorian farmers.
“If the close relationship that Daniel Andrews has supposedly developed with his friends in Beijing actually exists, then he needs to pick up the phone and demand an end to this blockade of Victoria’s vitally important products.
“Indeed, if he is so close to the Chinese Communist Party, the Premier could play a leading role in having the CCP pull back from their belligerent anti-free trade approach,” she said.
Given Victorian farm produce is highly sought after globally, Mrs McArthur argued that Victoria’s trade representatives need to re-focus.
“If our numerous Victorian trade representatives in China cannot put a stop to this communist belligerence then they also need to have their roles reconsidered”.
“No use signing a flowery Memorandum of Understanding as part of the Andrews/Beijing BRI, if Victorian farmers get dudded in the process”.
“Shame on my fellow Members for Western Victoria Region, including Labor Minister’s Jaala Pulford and Gayle Tierney, and Stuart Grimley (Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party) and Andy Meddick (Animal Justice Party), who voted against the Liberal/Nationals motion on CCP tariffs, demonstrating their lack of interest or concern for their rural farming and agri business constituents”.
15 November 2020