PM to attend Joko Widodo’s inauguration and hold talks on FTA, which opposition leader says will be good for jobs

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Scott Morrison’s whirlwind trip to Indonesia is a “good thing”, his political opponent says, as Labor embraces bipartisan support for Australia’s latest free trade agreement.

Morrison travelled to Indonesia for Joko Widodo’s second inauguration as president, with talks between the two leaders planned at the presidential palace.

A top line discussion topic will be the Australia-Indonesia free trade agreement, which Australia moved one step closer to ratifying after Labor indicated its support, provided its list of concessions were met, despite trade union opposition to the agreement.

The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, told Guardian Australia he was confident tweaks could be made to accommodate some of Labor’s concerns.

Union anger at Labor for siding with Coalition on new free trade deals Read more

Albanese said with Indonesia on track to become the world’s fourth biggest economy by 2050, it made sense for Australia to be at the front door, noting that Morrison was in Indonesia.

“That is a good thing,” he said on Sunday.

“It is important that we have a good relationship with our neighbour to the north in Indonesia. There are enormous economic advantages that we will have, as Indonesia grows, into the future.

“They are building a new capital city, all of that means jobs – for Australian infrastructure companies, for Australian steel, for Australian engineers, Australian architects, Australian planners, Australian legal officers and service deliverers. There is enormous opportunity as a result of this agreement, which will see – on the one hand 2% of Indonesian goods into Australia, goods and services, become tariff free, and in return, 25% of Australian goods and services into Indonesia, a growing market, will be tariff free.”

Albanese said he would not speak for the trade union movement, but he believed Labor had addressed its main fears in demanding changes to the agreement, in exchange for its support.

“What we are doing is fighting for Australian jobs and we have written to the government making a number of demands consistent with what the unions want,” he said.

“Consistent with protecting Australian jobs, consistent with ensuring privatisation is ruled out, consistent with making sure there can be no replacement of Australian workers with foreign workers. They are our demands. I expect they will be met and when they are met, these agreements when approved will be good for Australian jobs.”

Morrison told the Liberal party council meeting on Saturday he expected to be able to assure Widodo that Australia was “absolutely on track” with ratifying the trade agreement, which was also expected to go ahead in Indonesia, following Widodo’s re-election.

Morrison will speak about the trade opportunities from the deals involving Indonesia at a barbecue lunch with business leaders from the Indonesian Employers’ Association, Indonesia-Australia Business Council and local community, and officials from the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He is also seeking other bilateral meetings during the day-long visit. Leaders or senior officials from at least 18 countries are attending the inauguration. These include the leaders of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines, and the vice-premier of China.

Additional reporting by Australian Associated Press