Wednesday, 5 June 2019

 Mr GUY (Bulleen) (09:43): I rise to make some comments about a recent delegation I led to Argentina and Chile and, importantly, talk in a bipartisan manner about how Victoria should spend more time and energy on engaging South American economies and building these relationships for mutual benefit. Victoria’s South American engagement strategy is a positive step. It outlines a number of key areas where Victoria should be engaging a continent of more than half a billion people, both benefiting our economy and also educating a number of emerging economies about world’s best practice.

Education, high-end manufacturing, e-trade, sporting major events and benefiting from a diverse multicultural workforce are commonalities Victoria has with South American economies. However, in my delegation to Argentina the discussions always pivoted back to agriculture. Argentina’s enormous reliance on it, as 35 per cent of their international trade base, and Victoria’s future agricultural economic output and historical significance to our economy are paramount. I do not have the time to speak longer, but again let me put on record how important South America is to our state. As members of Parliament and sales people for Victoria I encourage all members to take an interest in the strategy, the work of a number of previous strategies by other governments, and also to ensure that our state diversifies its economic focus beyond the Asia­Pacific region and North America.