Interview with Tom Connell, Sky News, Afternoon Agenda

Tom Connell, Host: Welcome back. Speculation about the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, heading to China. The question is, will it happen this year and are there any caveats on that trip? Joining me now is Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres. Thanks very much for your time. So, what of this trip? Can you just clarify for us, would this trip happen if there was still trade sanctions from the Chinese Communist Party placed on Australian products?

Tim Ayres, Assistant Minister for Trade and Assistant Minister for Manufacturing: Well, the Prime Minister's, I think, been pretty clear, as the Foreign Minister has, and as the Trade Minister has. There's been an invitation issued. This visit will happen at a suitable time. It will happen when the Prime Minister makes a judgement, and I'm not here to forecast the Prime Minister's travel plans. It will happen when it is at the most suitable time and, of course, when it's an opportunity to prosecute Australia's national interest. So, that's all I can say at this stage. Tom, the invitation's been issued and the Prime Minister's considering the best time to travel.

Tom Connell: Putting aside, I know they're busy schedules, but usually you can squeeze something in for a significant visit like this. Is it fair to say Australia wants to see the sanctions lifted before a visit would be arranged?

Assistant Minister: Well, all I can say about that, Tom, is that these impediments should never have been placed in front of Australian exporters to China. The Government, under the leadership of Anthony Albanese [and] Trade Minister Don Farrell has been working in a careful and calm and consistent way prosecuting Australia's national interest, and some progress has been made in some product category areas. But, of course, there is significant progress to go.

Now, the remaining impediments in front of Australian trade categories, barley, wine, seafood, a series of other products, they are absolutely, of course, not in the interest of Australian exporters, but they're not in the interest of Chinese consumers or the parts of the China supply chain that utilise Australian imports. Now, I want to see, and the Government wants to see, fast progress here. And, of course, progress should be measured not just in the removal of impediments but in container ship movements and bulk handler movements arriving at Chinese ports and clearing Chinese ports and arriving in supermarkets. And for consumers right across China.

Tom Connell: The invitation might include a bit of a come over and we'll sort out those final tariffs. Would that be an acceptable background, if you like, for a visit?

Assistant Minister: The timing of travel is a matter for the Prime Minister and I'm not here to forecast the Prime Minister's diary on your program. He will make those judgments. All I can say is that I want to see fast progress, more progress, substantial progress on the remaining impediments in front of Australian trade. We are, of course, as you know, in the middle of a review on the Chinese side that has been agreed in relation to barley. That will conclude in just a few weeks' time. Now, Australia has suspended its WTO action while that review is taking place. And I'm very keen to see positive progress made in that review. And it's just one more step along the way as the Government seeks to, in the trade area, but more broadly, stabilise the relationship with China.

Tom Connell: Tim, just hold there if you can. We're going to take you live, our viewers that is, to Melbourne. Victorian Premier is now taking questions on this IBAC inquiry -

[Broadcast cut]

Tom Connell: You are watching Afternoon Agenda. Interrupting that interview, I was talking to the Assistant Manufacturing Minister, Tim Ayres, who's been sitting there patiently. Tim, pretty patient. I saw your body language at the end. You were sort of thinking "Am I getting back on here?" You are. Putting on your manufacturing hat for a moment –

Assistant Minister: Thank you.

Tom Connell: Productivity, it's going terribly, and it's actually got worse since you, as in Labor, came to power. In a 30 second summary, what's happening here? Why is productivity so bad?

Assistant Minister: Well, productivity, whether it's labour productivity or multifactor productivity in Australia, has fallen off a cliff since 2012. I understand Angus Taylor was on your show a little bit earlier, talking about productivity. I mean, it's sort of shameless performance. A decade of the worst productivity performance in Australia over 60 years was the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments going down and down and down.

A lecture about productivity from these guys. I mean really? We say, as a government, yes, productivity is a big challenge. It is always the defining economic challenge. In the long run that's how you lift wages, that's how you grow the economy, that's how you build opportunity.

And the Government is working through that in a way where instead of being about pushing some people down and trying to lift others up and dividing Australians like the previous government did. We want to see Australians, Australian institutions, workers, business, trade unions, civil society, government at all levels, working together to lift productivity. But honestly, getting a lecture from Angus Taylor about productivity is pretty extraordinary.

Tom Connell: His point was, the last year it's gone from slow growth to actually going backwards, which is true. But let me ask you this, just finally, and briefly, it might sound like a silly question, because we keep having technology advancements which should help productivity. Is the tech we've got in the last ten years almost hurting us? I mean, it strikes me that we're all distracted by our phones, amongst other things. Has tech become a distraction rather than a game?

Assistant Minister: Well, technology adoption in Australia, of course, and around the world has been extraordinary. What we haven't seen is as high levels of business investment in capital, firms investment that we need to see. And so, some of our reforms, the National Reconstruction Fund, what we're doing in the energy sector and electricity sector more broadly, with Rewiring the Nation, this is government co-investing with business in new plant, new equipment, new technology that's designed to drive the jobs of the future and, of course, to lift Australian productivity. So, it's a shared approach, it's targeted at that work. But, of course, Tom, you and I are not the only ones who are distracted by our phones from time to time.

Tom Connell: Good to know. On that front, perhaps I haven't helped your productivity. You were sitting there for 20 minutes thinking, "what am I doing with my time?", but we appreciate the talk-

Assistant Minister: A little bit of peace and quiet and watching a bit of Victorian politics for five minutes is no bad thing. And so always good to be on the show, mate. Thank you.

Tom Connell: Tim Ayres thank you.