Malcolm Turnbull has had initial talks with Bill Shorten about the China-Australia free trade agreement (Chafta), raising hopes of a potential political compromise to secure the passage of associated legislation through the parliament.
Shorten, the Labor leader, said he had spoken to the new prime minister directly and told him the opposition was not seeking to change the legal text of the treaty in its attempts to ensure “safeguards” to protect Australian job opportunities.
It is understood this was a brief phone conversation and followed Shorten’s letter to Turnbull last week requesting a meeting to discuss Labor’s proposals for “complementary safeguards” without delaying the agreement’s timely implementation.
Turnbull said in a Sky News interview on Wednesday that he was “open to talking to them but they have made no specific proposals”. While opening the door to talks, the prime minister took a swipe at Shorten for “just bobbing along like a cork in the slipstream of the CFMEU”.
Shorten was asked at a media conference in Sydney on Thursday whether he was prepared to put forward specific legislative amendments.
“Yes. No problems,” Shorten said.
“We think that a China free trade agreement is a good thing but we also want to ensure that Australians are getting the opportunities to work in Australia and getting priority. That’s all.
“The government says that there’s no problem and that any of the concerns we have won’t materialise. That’s the basis for a negotiation. If they say there is no problem and legitimate concerns have been expressed, we’ll work it out. I’ve been in far harder negotiations than this.”
The prospect of talks stands in contrast to the combative stance taken by the former prime minister, Tony Abbott, who told the Labor party that “there is absolutely nothing to negotiate here” and put a motion to parliament demanding Chafta be supported in its existing form.
In response to that parliamentary motion, Shorten spelled out his demands for legislative safeguards and other assurances about the effect of Chafta.
He wanted “mandatory labour-market testing for projects over $150m, an assurance that Australian skills and safety will be maintained and that Australian wages will not be undercut”.
Labour-market testing is a requirement that companies try to find local workers before seeking to hire people from overseas. Shorten’s comments indicated the opposition was focused on the memorandum of understanding that the government reached for Chinese-backed infrastructure development projects worth at least $150m.
The document – which does not form part of the formal treaty but was negotiated at the same time – says no labour-market testing is required to enter into one of these overarching “investment facilitation arrangements”. But the memo leaves the door open for the immigration department to force the direct employers of overseas workers to do so.
The government has argued employers will be required, as a matter of policy, to apply labour-market testing but Labor has suggested the assurances are inadequate and should be put beyond doubt in legislation.
The trade minister, Andrew Robb, told the Australian newspaper earlier this week that “in the absence of any change in substance we have nothing to negotiate”.
But Labor seized on Robb’s concession two weeks ago that it was possible but not desirable to legislate for mandatory labour market testing. When asked on Sky News why it was so hard to legislate to clarify the requirement for labour-market testing, Robb said: “It’s not difficult to do, but it creates all sorts of complications.”
The minister said at the time that such a proposal would represent “an almighty snub” to Beijing, which would feel it had been targeted, thereby souring “so much of the goodwill that has been generated”.
It is unclear whether Labor has drafted legislative amendments to bring into effect its proposed safeguards, although it is understood the party is not likely to pursue China-specific arrangements for the 457 visa scheme. The mooted changes would be more likely to have broader effect.
Parliament’s joint standing committee on treaties is yet to complete its report on Chafta. The government wants to pass the associated legislation before the end of the year.
