Australian Prime Minister Doorstop Interview – Pokolbin

I thank everyone very much, for the very warm welcome here at Brokenwood. This is a very famous winery, not just here in the Hunter Valley, but right around Australia and right around the world. When people look at our products, what they look at is the best in the world. And the Hunter here is about to celebrate 200 years, in four years’ time, so 196 not out. And we’re going to help the hit to the boundary to get that double century in style with the resumption of trade with China. China wants good high-quality wine, and Australia produces it in places like Hunter Valley, as well the Barossa, through the Clare and down even down near Canberra around Murrumbateman, across to Margaret River, down in Tassie. It’s such a great industry, it employs hundreds of thousands if you take into account tourism, if we take into account everything else that comes from here. I know that Barnesy is playing across the road. So what a great place to work during the day, then you go across the road and get to see Jimmy Barnes. The flow on impact of this is enormous. Now, when the impediments to trade with China were put in place, the trade was worth in 2019, $1.1 billion every year. Now, we reckon that the resumption of trade, which we think is imminent, will see an even higher amount. Because that’s what we’ve seen with other products that have been resumed, like barley, and some of the other products where trade has resumed. There’s a couple more things to go, lobster, beef, and we’re continuing to work on that. But one of the things that the Government has been doing is to work cooperatively to engage in our national interest, because trade is about Australian jobs. And these are good quality jobs. And I noticed the very happy, smiley faces around here as well. Why wouldn’t you? And this is such a showcase as well for Australia. So, I just want to say, you’ve got fantastic local members here in the team. Meryl’s struggling here, but she’s so determined to get here. And Pat and Dan are, of course, fantastic Hunter representatives. Dan probably is capable of consuming a fair bit of product as well, probably can sustain a bit more than others, but he’s a champion of this area. And we’ve just been up the road doing an announcement at Liddell that will see more jobs created there in manufacturing than ever worked there when it was a power station. So, we think this region has such a vital future. And you’re very much front and centre of it. So, thank you so much for what you do. We look forward to an announcement in the coming period. We’re pretty close. We’ve done a lot of work. And a lot of that has been just about showing that we want to cooperate where we can. It’s in our interest to export wine. But guess what? It’s in the world’s interest to receive our wine as well. Because it’s a fantastic product. It is absolutely a win-win. And I hosted the Chinese Foreign Minister just a couple weeks ago. And I will host the Chinese Premier later this year. And we want good relations wherever we can. Because it is about our economy and about jobs. So, thank you so much.