Zoe McKenzie MP
Shadow Cabinet Secretary
Shadow Assistant Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations
Member for Flinders
TRANSCRIPT
SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT
Tuesday, 23 March 2026
Topics: Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement
KIERAN GILBERT: Let’s return now to Canberra and we’ve got the arrival of the President of the European Commission tomorrow here in Canberra for the signing, expected signing, of a free trade agreement. Someone that worked on the negotiations over many years, Shadow Cabinet Secretary Zoe McKenzie is with me. You must be delighted this is finally getting done. I know you worked on this many years ago.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, to be fair, like substantive ministerial level meetings started back in 2015, I think. Mathias Cormann handled them for us. Andrew Robb, as you know, I worked for a long time, was very prolific and engaged in the Asian sphere. And Mathias was our man for the European deal, assisted by our office at the time. And there’s been about two generations of DFAT negotiators who’ve worked on this deal. So there’s a lot of people who are very relieved to see it finally coming to fruition.
KIERAN GILBERT: What’s it worth for our exporters?
ZOE MCKENZIE: So at the moment, two-way trade’s about $110 billion and we expect that it will increase that by about $10 billion. And keep in mind, that’s in both different directions. We export about $17 billion. But we are really behind the times. New Zealand’s had a deal for years. Mercosur recently, so they’re the Latin American countries, recently signed a deal. India’s got a deal. So Australia’s a bit late to the party. Almost got there in ‘23, but the government balked at the last minute. And frankly, I think the Europeans put us on the back burner for a while as a result. So it’s finally getting done. It should be signed tomorrow. And then the President of the European Commission will address the Parliament.
KIERAN GILBERT: And the fact that Ursula von der Leyen will become the first female leader, visiting leader, to address our Parliament.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Indeed. Yep.
KIERAN GILBERT: You’d welcome that, obviously.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it’s essential that she address our Parliament. I think at one point last week they were thinking not of having that happen. A number of us made a strong representation, so I might say to our friends in government, that she should, in fact, address the Parliament. Particularly after Mark Carney addressed it in the most recent sitting period. The first female, the first President of the European Commission, and an extremely important strategic partner. So it’s the FTA, a strategic defence agreement, and Horizon Europe, so that’s all about research and innovation agreements, that should be signed off tomorrow. Really important to deepen our partnership with a stable, shared values jurisdiction like the European Union.
KIERAN GILBERT: Given how much uncertainty there is worldwide, the timing is pretty good.
ZOE MCKENZIE: And I noticed last time I was there, the increase in the knowledge of our region, the Asia-Pacific region, extraordinary, so they’re becoming very good partners indeed.
KIERAN GILBERT: Zoe McKenzie, thank you very much. We’ll talk to you soon.
ENDS.
