Wednesday, 12 August 2026

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:45): On Saturday I was very pleased to attend two business events in the CBD. The first was the opening of the 2026 China Guangxi Commodities Expo at the Pan Pacific building. This was an expo very much in the spirit of the expos we had in the 1880s where new production products, new production methodologies were on full display, and I think this speaks to the untapped opportunity Australia has in dealing with China, because it is not just about the exchange of goods and services, it is actually about the exchange of technologies and production methods. This is an incredibly healthy engagement from the Guangxi trading association to bring this to Melbourne. They had a fantastic exhibition over Saturday and Sunday, and I congratulate the organisers.