Joint press conference – Port Adelaide, SA

This transcript has been redacted in accordance with Digital Transformation Agency guidelines.

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Don Farrell, Minister for Trade: Thanks, Joe, and welcome to everybody here today. It's great to be with Joe. He's a standout Trade Minister in what is a standout state government under my good friend Peter Malinauskas. And it's the teamwork between the state and the federal government that's got us to this point where we've had almost double the record amount of crayfish going back into China. When I started this job almost three years ago, we faced $20 billion worth of trade impediments on our products going back into China. That disproportionately affected South Australia because so many of the products were staples in this state. The last of those products to get back in was crayfish and we got that back in just before Christmas, so just in time to make the Lunar New Year. And of course, we've now seen these wonderful, wonderful results coming through. And what we've seen in respect of every single product that we've got back into China over the last three years is that we are getting more product back into China than before the impediments were imposed. It doesn't matter whether you talk about wheat, barley, beef or wine, all very important products produced in South Australia. All of those products are now going back into China at greater volumes. Why is that important? Well, if your business is outward facing, then your profits are going to be higher, but more importantly, the wages of your staff are going to be higher. So, it's good for business and it's good for employees. These are difficult times for trade. But what we've seen is with that more than $20 billion now getting back into China, that's good obviously for the Australian economy. We're a great free trading nation. But it's also good for Chinese consumers. They're getting the best product in the world. How do we know that? Well, they're buying so much. I do want to particularly single out Kyri here because these were really tough times for Australian and South Australian fishers. They had to hold firm in what were the most difficult of circumstances. And can I congratulate Kyri in the way that he stuck with the government? It would have been very easy to throw up your hands and say, look, we're not going to resolve this issue. But Kyri stuck with us for the whole of the time, and of course now the seafood industry in this state and in this country is reaping the benefits. So, great work there Kyri. Have a great day. Thank you.

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