Ms. Freeman questions the Premier about the announced closure of the WA trade office in Indonesia. The Premier clarifies that the office hasn't closed and a decision is pending after the current representative's contract ends.

AnsweredQoN 850Legislative Assembly
Asked
22 October 2014
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

INDONESIA —
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TRADE OFFICE
850. Ms J.M. FREEMAN to the Premier:
I refer to the announced closure of
the Western Australian Indonesian trade office in September. WA has been the
only state or territory to maintain a continuous stand-alone presence in
Indonesia for the past two decades. Will the Premier overturn this decision and
rule out closing the trade office?

AnswerView source ↗

The trade office has not been closed
and no decision has been made with respect to that. What will happen is that
the person who currently holds the position will complete their contract at the
end of December, and the government is deciding what will happen after that.
One option that has been reported is to have a person embedded within Austrade.
One of the arguments for not doing so—this is not a criticism of any
individual, including the current representative—is that we do not as a
state have connections into the higher levels of government and business in
Indonesia, as we do with virtually every other trade office. That is the
reality of the situation in Jakarta. We are deciding which way we will do it,
but no decision has been made. We will certainly always retain trade
representations in Jakarta.

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