Scott Morrisons discovery of India is hopelessly overdue and underlines his Governments lack of a plan for protecting and promoting Australias interests in the world.
Australia is well-placed to help meet Indias economic aspirations. India is our second-largest source of international students, and Australia benefits from a 700,000-strong Indian-Australian diaspora.
But next month marks two years since former DFAT secretary, Peter Varghese, presented this Government with the India Economic Strategy, which was intended as a blueprint to transform our economic engagement.
Since then the strategy has gathered dust, continuing years of failure by this Government to adequately diversify Australias trading economy.
Under Scott Morrison as Prime Minister and Treasurer, Australia has become increasingly reliant on a single trading partner. The only economy that depends more on China than Australia is Hong Kong.
Instead of trade diversification, Scott Morrison and his government have overseen the proportion of Australian trade with China increase by a third from 19.8 per cent of Australias total trade to 26.4 per cent.
In the same period, the proportion of Australias trade with Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the US has declined and the proportion of Australias trade with India has increased by a measly 0.7 percentage points from 2.7% to 3.4%.
We recognise that India alone does not provide a magical solution on diversification, but the fact is that India has barely rated a mention by this Government.
Labor launched negotiations with India for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in May 2011. The most recent negotiation was 45 months ago, in September 2015.
We hope this weeks virtual summit yields more than headlines aimed at providing a distraction from recent trade issues with China, and instead marks a long overdue shift in emphasis and a serious plan for diversifying Australias interests.
Authorised by Paul Erickson, ALP, Canberra.