Australia was the first Western country to break through the metaphorical Great Wall of China in terms of free trade, creating a trading environment no Western G20 economy has ever enjoyed. Yes, in breaking through we have got a little bloodied, but our efforts were not in vain, and they must not be in vain.

At these challenging times, we need to work hard to reverse the souring of our political relationship. The irony is that while at a political level our relationship is facing some difficulties, at a commercial level our relationship has never been better.

If the court’s decision does not stand, we will continue to face exposure to imperious government intervention in export markets, without any protection for those who do the right thing. It would leave our ability to operate in doubt.

Andrew Robb today completely rejected the assertions and innuendo made in a piece of gutter journalism in the Sunday Age newspaper.

“It will take quite a lot of ­adjustment in the UK for them to remove a lot of the assistance and protection for many of the agricultural products … It’s going to ­require a will on their part that hasn’t existed,”

Former trade minister Andrew Robb AO has told delegates at Red Meat that Asia and, in particular China, is where Australia must focus for future red meat export opportunities.

Mr Robb, who was minister for trade and investment under Malcolm Turnbull, on Thursday joins the board of Mind Medicine Aust­ra­lia, a body active in funding clinic­al research into the psychological benefits of medicinal psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms and MDMA (a pure form of ecstasy).

Psychedelics may have been used and abused by many hippies in the 1960s, but until banned in 1970 for crass political purposes psychedelics also held the promise of a remarkable impact in dealing with serious mental health conditions.