Total New Spending on Trade = $0

Date: 10 May 2000

The 2000-01 budget demonstrates starkly just how indifferent the Howard Government is to Australia's trade problems, Shadow Trade Minister, Senator Peter Cook, said today.

"The latest budget contains no new spending whatsoever in the trade portfolio," Senator Cook said.

"The Asian downturn is over, and long-term growth has returned to the region. This is the time for Australia to capture new markets. Yet there are no new funds allocated to Austrade or to the Export Market Development Grants scheme.

"The budget depends on increasing exports to meet its forecast growth. But without additional support for small and medium enterprises, this will be growth that most of them will miss out on.

"The Howard Government has presided over the first fall in Australian exports in at least 20 years. Last year, the trade deficit was a record $16 billion. When Labor left office, Australia had a trade surplus.

"Further, the current account deficit in 1999 was a record $34 billion. At 4.9% of GDP, our CAD now tops the Economist magazine's table of developed nations.

"In the 1999 Budget, former Trade Minister, Tim Fischer, at least managed to get $7.4 million over four years to open a new consulate. But then, we must take into account the fact that Mark Vaile isn't Deputy Prime Minister.

"While his colleagues fanned out announcing their new budget measures on Tuesday, Trade Minister Mark Vaile was reduced to issuing a mini-annual report, simply recounting the way in which the existing money was being spent.

"But I guess that's what happens when you have a Trade Minister without much clout in Cabinet."

For further information

Contact:	Andrew Leigh
Union:	ALP Federal
Phone:	0412 633 652
WWW:	http://www.alp.org.au

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