Earlier this week eBay hosted a board room event with the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia (AmCham) in eBay’s Sydney offices where the Hon Jason Clare MP, Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment addressed a group of high profile CEOs and industry to discuss trade and delivered an official speech entitled “Wayne the Welder and the Politics of Trade: A Cautionary Tale”.
The Shadow Minister’s speech to AmCham and eBay focused on how Australia needs to safeguard against backlash over free trade and stop “the anti-trade backlash we saw last year in the US creeping across the Pacific”. He spoke about the trade debate being different in Australia to the US and said that “the two major parties both support free trade. With good reason, we are a trading nation. Trade is the key to our success. It always has been. We rise and fall on what we sell to the rest of the world. But that doesn’t mean trade is particularly popular”. On this he spoke about Wayne the welder, a symbol of working class Australia, as one example of an Australian who cannot see the benefits of trade to him in his industry. On this view, the Shadow Minister said there is a fix, “ if technology and trade mean that some jobs are more in demand than others we have got to make sure more Australians have got the skills to do these jobs”. He spoke about the nexus between education of Australians and boosting trade, and jobs and therefore the economy.
Mr. Jooman Park, eBay’s Managing Director and Vice President, Australia and New Zealand made opening remarks regarding the importance of global trade for small businesses exporting via marketplaces such as eBay. MS Kristen Foster, eBay’s Director of Government Relations, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South East Asia closed proceedings, and highlighted that the Shadow Minister’s electorate had many successful small businesses leveraging eBay’s marketplace to export to the world, with approximately 75% of eBay sellers on ebay.com.au exporting.
The Shadow Minister’s speech received media coverage. Click here to read the Shadow Minister’s full speech.