Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance) (14:40): I thank Senator Whish-Wilson for that question. The first point I would make is that I completely reject the assertion that we are going against Treasury advice. The government have a very simple commitment. Our commitment is to pursue policies that strengthen our economy and create jobs. To the extent that entering into free trade agreements helps us strengthen our economy and create jobs, we will pursue them; to the extent that it does not, we will not. That is a very, very simple equation. I would make this more general observation: not having free trade agreements in place where the nations that we compete with do actually puts us at a serious disadvantage. If I can just take the free trade agreement that we agreed on with Korea last week as an example. The United States of America, who we compete with in that market, in particular in relation to agricultural products, was taking significant market share away from Australian farmers. Why? Because it was able to access that market at much superior conditions than Australian farmers. So the point— Senator Whish-Wilson: Mr President, I rise on a point of order going to relevance. I clearly asked: what safeguards Senator Cormann was putting in place to limit future litigation against the Australian people. The PRESIDENT: Order! The question was broader than that. The minister is addressing the question; the minister still has 55 seconds remaining. There is no point of order. Senator CORMANN: This is actually a very important issue, and it is one that does need to be debated and argued across the Australian community in a responsible fashion, which is why I am actually going out of my way to give you a very genuine answer, Senator Whish-Wilson. The point here is this: we will only pursue free trade agreements that are in the national interest. We will only pursue free trade agreements that help us strengthen our economy and create jobs. In relation to investor-state dispute settlement clauses, what we have said very clearly, what Minister Robb—who achieved outstanding success with Korea the other week, success that the previous government was not able to achieve during six years in government—has said very clearly is that we will only consider inclusion of those sorts of clauses on a case-by-case basis where, as part of an overall package, we consider the overall package to be in the national interest.