Mr RAMSEY (Grey—Opposition Whip) (10:06): Between the dates of 27 October and 2 November, I was given the great privilege as co-chair of the friends of Morocco at the request of the Moroccan government to lead a delegation to Morocco. One of the reasons I am signed up to be a friend of Morocco is that I had the privilege of visiting the country before I entered parliament, in fact. What I saw there at that stage was quite impressive, but I was very much more impressed with what I saw on our trip back to Morocco just a couple of weeks ago. It is a vibrant democracy and, I would say without any shadow of a doubt in my mind, the most successful democracy in the Arab world. It’s enlightened. It’s led by a vibrant parliament and a very enlightened king, Mohammed VI. They are a very tolerant society, where women are encouraged in education, in the workforce, in management and in parliament, and they have very good representation. It is wonderful to see that in a predominantly Muslim nation in a fairly troubled part of the world. I think they set a wonderful example.
They are having huge investment in education and training. We visited some of their facilities. They have a free trade agreement with Europe. In 2012, Renault opened a car factory near Tangier, where they now make 340,000 units a year. Most of them are going directly back into the EU tariff free, of course. They built a port, Tanger Med, which they opened in 2007. It is now the biggest port in the Mediterranean. It’s shifting nine million containers a year. As a result of that, they are building another port down at Laayoune, which is in the contested area of the Western Sahara. Morocco would like our support, along with 100 other countries around the world, to recognise their autonomous administration there. They are building a third port in eastern Morocco on the Mediterranean.
I’m indebted to the help of Madam Wassane Zailachi, the ambassador here in Australia. The Moroccans have asked that we try and get the government moving in the way of free trade agreement with Morocco. Subsequently, since I’ve come back, I have written on behalf of the delegation, which included the member for Adelaide, to ask the trade minister, Don Farrell, to open those negotiations. Verbally, I think Steve Georganas has had advice that he will be open to that, but I’ll looking forward to pushing forward with that agenda.