Former premier Richard Court says Australia’s response to the pandemic could pay dividends in Asian trade opportunities.
Australian companies will be well placed in the scramble to regain international markets as the trade barriers erected to contain COVID-19 start to come down.
That’s the view of former premier Richard Court, who has returned to Perth after four years as Australia’s Ambassador to Japan.
Mr Court spoke to Business News after emerging from two weeks’ compulsory quarantine in a city hotel.
He said Australia’s ability to keep COVID-19 under control was potentially a great advantage in re-establishing markets, especially in Asia when international borders reopened.
Australia was seen in the region as a country that had maintained strong health standards.
“We have been able to contain COVID and that will help us in selling our agricultural products, and it will help us in tourism, and it will help us in education,” Mr Court said.
Referring to reports that several Australian export items to China were under threat, Mr Court said the Chinese market had grown quickly, and this had encouraged many businesses to put all their eggs in the one basket.
This could have unexpected consequences, he said.
Mr Court said Japan was only 38 per cent self-sufficient in food and relied heavily on imports, which provided good opportunities for Australian produce (with quality beef especially popular).
But suppliers should not expect to simply switch to markets such as Japan if demand in China dropped.
“The Japanese are very longterm players,” Mr Court said.
“You can’t just say: ‘We now have a surplus of wine and can we put it into your market?’
“It takes time. You have to establish brands, you have to get into their logistical chains, and be patient.”
Mr Court said the restoration of direct flights from Asia to Australia was the key to penetrating the tourism and education markets.
The disruption to international travel had provided a wake-up call for Australian universities, which had come to rely on full fee-paying foreign students.
Meanwhile, Australia’s strong health record in containing the virus could prove a great asset as families in Asia looked at the educational alternatives for their children.
“The question for them is where they want their sons or daughters studying right now,” Mr Court said.
“Is it Europe or North America, or Australia? I think the answer is pretty obvious.”
He said Edith Cowan University had operated a successful program utilising direct flights from Asian cities before the pandemic struck.
The challenge would be getting structures back up and running when students were allowed to return.
The competition would be strong.
Mr Court (73) said he intended to return to the private sector but would not be drawn on local politics.
“I left in 2001 and I haven’t interfered in the political process since then,” he said.
Canberra behaviour
What was the key motivating factor behind the recent Four Corners story on ABC television alleging poor behaviour by two cabinet ministers, one who has apologised?
The other, Attorney General Christian Porter, has rejected the claims.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull had plenty to say on the program, including that he effectively counselled ‘Porter’ about his reported behaviour with a young woman at a Canberra bar several years ago.
Mr Turnbull and Mr Porter had their differences in government, including Mr Porter advising against a plan of action the former prime minister was considering taking to help save his job.
And how relevant were Mr Porter’s alleged actions while an undergraduate at the University of WA?
If you start delving into that sort of thing, where do you stop?
There’s plenty of infidelity in the national capital when parliament is in session.
It’s been going on for years.
Think former Hawke government minister Gareth Evans and former Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot.
But they are all adults.
However, it is clearly unacceptable for politicians to pressure staff into sexual relationships.
Throwing allegations around rarely ends well.
In 1983, when Tasmanian Liberal MP Michael Hodgman (known as the ‘mouth from the south’) referred to newly elected Labor prime minister Bob Hawke as a ‘reformed alcoholic and a retired boudoir bandicoot’, he might have thought it a good line.
But he regretted it the next day when Fremantle MP John Dawkins retaliated by referring to some of Mr Hodgman’s past behaviour, which he suggested was less that squeaky clean.
