NICK MCCALLUM: Penny Wong is the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and the Shadow Minister for Trade. Senator, thanks for your time.

SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Good to be with you.

MCCALLUM: So, first of all, in a nutshell, what are the concessions that youve got?

WONG: There were three areas we wanted safeguards. We wanted labour market testing, that is making sure Australians had the opportunity to get the jobs on offer, we wanted protection for Australian wages and conditions and we wanted to uphold skills and safety standards of Australia and we have delivered new legal safeguards in each of these areas. And were pleased that the Government was prepared to have a negotiation with us and to achieve these outcomes.

MCCALLUM: The unions have already indicated their anger at the Labor Party for doing the deal and they say the safeguards are inadequate.

WONG: There are safeguards that will be in place as a result of this agreement for labour market testing, getting the opportunity to get jobs, for wages and conditions and for skills and safety standards that werent in there yesterday and thats a good thing.

But, I do agree there is more work to be done. We do know there is exploitation of overseas workers, we know there are problems in terms of how some workers are treated, we know there is underpayment, weve seen some of that through the media. So, obviously there is more work to be done and youd anticipate if Labor were elected that it will be done.

MCCALLUM: But if theres more work to be done why did you agree to sign off on the agreement?

WONG: Because many of those issues are actually not about the China Free Trade Agreement, theyre issues about the broader operation of our temporary migration system. The safeguards we have achieved improve that system across the board, they actually will apply not just to workers coming in under this agreement, but under work agreements across the board, so that is a good thing. But you cant fix every aspect of temporary work arrangements, temporary migration arrangements through one trade agreement, so weve got important moves here, important safeguards. But we acknowledge theres more to be done. All of us have seen the exploitation of workers, for example at 7-Eleven. We know theres enforcement work that needs to be done, that unfortunately isnt happening under this Government and those things can be addressed down the track by a Labor Government, because I think we would actually have the commitment to doing that, which this Government clearly hasnt.

MCCALLUM: Are you concerned at this particular time that the Labor Party has made some pretty powerful enemies amongst the union movement, because youve actually agreed to this now.

WONG: Well, I accept that there are people who will criticise this agreement. My view is we have to look to the national interest and we did that, weve always said we recognise the benefits of trading with one of the largest, soon to be the largest, economies in the world, a very, very fast growing consumer market. That economic opportunity yields benefits for workers here in Australia.

So there were great benefits to the agreement, there were aspects of the agreement we had concerns about, so what we did was took a responsible approach and said we want these safeguards, we think theyre very important and weve secured them and this enables bipartisan support for a trade agreement with an economy that is critical to Australia currently and will become increasingly so in the decades to come.

MCCALLUM: Just to clarify, will these new safeguards ensure that the Chinese workers who come to Australia will be paid the same rate as Australian counterparts?

WONG: That is one of the safeguards we have sought. We wanted to ensure Australian wages and conditions were observed, we wanted to ensure that we improved safeguards, so we got a legal obligation for the market rate that such workers have to be assessed against to reference the enterprise agreement, the enterprise bargaining rate, that was applicable. Thats a stronger legal test than currently applies.

Now obviously if there are people who do the wrong thing in any area of life, you cant legislate against someone doing the wrong thing and thats an enforcement activity and we hope that the Government will listen to what weve said about enforcement. Weve asked for greater work on that as part of this agreement and I think the Government would do well to listen to the concerns of Australians about those issues.

MCCALLUM: The other concern, certainly the Labor Party raised early on and the unions still raise, and that is going and testing the local market and ensure there are not the workers with the same skills available from the local market before the Chinese are allowed here. What provisions have been made now, because of that?

WONG: Thats a good question and what we have achieved is a legal obligation to undertake labour market testing in relation to all work agreements. That is work agreements the Minister can approve under which workers do come into the country. Some of those will be under the China Free Trade Agreement, there are others which already exist in our migration system and what we said is we want labour market testing, which is, as you said, the simple way of explaining that is if there are jobs available Australians get the first opportunity to fill those jobs. Thats what we want and thats what weve achieved as a legal obligation.

MCCALLUM: Seriously, because that was the main sticking point. But youre convinced this new agreement meets that?

WONG: Certainly in respect of work agreements. We are not able to fix that in relation to another part of the agreement, its getting very technical, but theres another chapter of the agreement, we couldnt fix that because the Government gave that away. Now, Ill be clear, if Id been Trade Minister I wouldnt have given that away.

MCCALLUM: So what youre saying is its an imperfect agreement.

WONG: Of course.

MCCALLUM: But youre willing, on the balance of probabilities, youre willing to go with it.

WONG: Of course. Look, in Opposition you cant rewrite an agreement. We werent prepared to tear up the agreement; we didnt think that was in the national interest. This isnt the agreement we would have done, we would not have given away some of the concessions that youve described. So, what weve done instead is put safeguards around the agreement that are about jobs, about wages and conditions and about skills and safety standards and we believe this enables us to support the agreement. But we absolutely acknowledge two things: one is there is more work to be done when it comes to ensuring migrant workers arent exploited and the second thing is we acknowledge this is not the agreement Labor would have done. We would have undertaken a different agreement and we wouldnt have given away some of the access to the labour market that the Government has. But this is the agreement weve had to negotiate with and on balance we think that there are benefits that are important for people, Australian workers, in this country and thats why we want to give bipartisan support.

MCCALLUM: The Government had accused the Labor Party and also members of the union movement of racism, basically, in their opposition. Now youve jumped on board do you concede there are elements of racism in the union campaign against this agreement?

WONG: I think its really important to remember, and it was Tony Abbott who made that charge and I think it was inaccurate and unfair. Its important to remember the people in this country who have most stood up for migrant workers who are being exploited has been the trade union movement. So, some of the name calling that characterised the Coalition under the previous Prime Minister I think was both unfair and inaccurate and not helpful to achieving a sensible discussion. What I said at the time is this: there is no place for racism in national politics, but there is a place for scrutiny and the reality is that there were aspects of this agreement which did deserve to be scrutinised and thats led to the safeguards weve achieved.

MCCALLUM: Penny Wong, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Trade, I appreciate your time this afternoon.

WONG: Good to speak with you.