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Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott will travel to India this month on behalf of the federal government to work on strengthening Australia’s economic and trade ties with the country.
Over the weekend, Trade Minister Dan Tehan issued a brief statement announcing the government-sponsored trip.
“In early August, Mr Abbott will travel to India to meet with Indian ministers and business leaders. This would be a chance for Australia to further its ambitious agenda to revitalise and extend its bilateral trade and investment partnership with India,” he added.
The five-day trip would cost the government $19,000, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Abbott will fly commercially and be quarantined for at least 14 days upon his return to Australia, according to the report.
Abbott has signed a conflict of interest declaration “in connection with his activities on this trip,” according to the DFAT representative.
Abbott was rumoured to have been appointed to the UK government’s Board of Trade in August. The appointment was revealed in September, and the former prime minister registered as a foreign influencer the following month, indicating that he had joined the board as a “unpaid adviser” who would “fight for free and fair trade, particularly with the United Kingdom and its allies.”
Madeleine King, the shadow trade minister, has slammed the coalition for sending Abbott on the trade mission.
“Do you want to boost your trade with India? How about putting the Varghese Report of 2018 into action?” Former DFAT secretary Peter Varghese’s 514-page study was referenced by King on Twitter.
The report, which was delivered to the government in 2018, included 90 suggestions for transforming Australia’s economic relationship with India through 2035.
Under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Australia and India have pledged to cooperate in sectors such as scientific research, defence, and public administration.
Abbott commented on Australia’s relationship with China and the free trade agreement signed between the two countries while he was Prime Minister last week in London. He told the Policy Exchange think group in the UK that he couldn’t “see the transaction going ahead today” because “it is difficult to trust a country that uses bogus pretexts to obstruct our exports to punish policy stances it doesn’t like.”
