Labor is deeply concerned by reports that China has blocked imports of Australian coal and yet again calls on the Government to devise a strategy to support our exporters and to embrace trade diversification.
 
The coal mining sector employs 46,000 Australians, with the export value of Australian thermal and metallurgical coal to China worth $14 billion a year.
 
This reported ban on Australian coal comes as barley growers, wine makers, meat processors, cotton growers, lobster fishers and other exporters all experience difficulties accessing the Chinese market.
 
Billions of dollars in trade and thousands of Australian jobs are at risk from these trade tensions.
 
Labor again calls on the Morrison Government to come up with a genuine plan to support our exporters and to make trade diversification a national priority.
 
Under this Government, Australia’s economic relationships with some of our most important neighbours, including India and Indonesia, have gone backwards.
 
These relationships must be nurtured through years of hard work, relationship building and resources on the ground.
 
The Government’s set-and-forget attitude to free trade agreements is not good enough.
 
Mr Morrison has failed to deliver leadership on the China relationship and has failed to admonish inflammatory behaviour by his backbenchers that has made a bad situation worse.
 
The most recent example of this was when Queensland senator and former resources minister, Matt Canavan, this week called for a levy on Australian iron ore exports to China.
 
Australian jobs and prosperity rely on open, rules-based trade - not retaliatory, tit-for-tat measures.
 
The Government must immediately appoint a dedicated Minister for Trade to work on resolving this crisis.
 
In July, Mathias Cormann announced his intended retirement, so Mr Morrison has known for almost six months that a Cabinet reshuffle was required.