PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (18:01): On the member for Reid's contribution about the European Union and trade, to her analogy with the World Cup football being played at the moment, there are also referees. When it comes to trade, we need good, strong referees; in the instance of trade, it's the World Trade Organization. When countries want to go and slap tariffs on you, and, also, when there are examples of countries not playing by the trade rules by which they are bound, then we need a good strong referee, an arbiter, to make sure that fairness is prevailing.

What we also need, and what any football team needs, is common sense. With the European Union, Australia's two-way trade is valued at $110.7 billion annually. I'll just give you four examples of this.

With Germany, our two-way trade is about $29 billion annually; Australia exports coal, canola and copper ore. With the United Kingdom, our two-way trade is approximately $31.2 billion annually; our exports are metals, lead, coal and meat. With France, our two-way trade is about $14.4 billion; our exports are coal, canola, aircraft parts and seeds.

With Italy, our two-way trade is about $12.37 billion, and Australia's exports to Italy are predominantly hot-rolled iron steel, wool—very valuable at the moment—gold and agricultural products. Services such as education and recreational travel also make up a significant portion. With the EU, at least with Germany, France and Italy—and of course the UK, but we're talking about the EU here—in each of the two-way trade references I gave, I referred to agriculture.

You can't have agriculture if you don't have good water policy. Whilst Labor might crow about trade and making sure that trade is what it should be, you're not going to have continued and expanding trade opportunities if you don't provide the water policy that is going to enable our irrigators to grow the food and the fibre to ensure that we have balance of trade and balance of payments.

We just need to be using more common sense in this regard. I've just come from a meeting with a group of southern connected irrigators. The theme of the meeting was 'Food for thought: can Australia protect both its environment and its food security?' When it comes to trade, food security equals trade security equals national security.

At the moment, we don't have balance in the Murray-Darling Basin and with the plan. The plan, this group that I just met say, is 'destroying our nation's important economic staple food production capabilities and failing to protect our rural communities'. What the EU trade arrangements do is build on the work of the coalition.

The partnership builds on the framework agreement signed in 2017 under the coalition government. The coalition has long championed deeper Australian-EU cooperation on security and defence. I appreciate we've had some important visits lately—not just political heads.

There are also, obviously, always those negotiations between key stakeholders, between government and those captains of industry, that are going to enhance these arrangements and ensure that they are put in place. But we have to be sensible when it comes to making sure that we can grow the amount of food available to such partnerships as this. Australia and the EU, we know, share values.

We share heritage and history. There's a common commitment to democracy and to human rights. The member for Reid mentioned Ukraine.

I support her 100 per cent in that regard. The EU, along with the UK, has been a leader in supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression. But we have to be sensible.

We have to make sure that we've got better water policy. Not only will I always talk this up; I will make a plea to the government to ensure that more money is put into infrastructure as far as water is concerned and not water buybacks—$340 million again last week. Buying water out of productive use doesn't make sense.