Author: The Hon. Andrew Robb AO
Event: Queensland Australia China Business Council
I very much appreciate the opportunity to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Queensland.
Over the last 12 months I have found myself in Brisbane and Gladstone quite often as I am heavily involved in a privately financed $20 billion port and freight rail project centered on developing a world class container port facility at the deep water Gladstone Port – a project which will open up Central Queensland and further north in a most profound way – a huge nation building project.
I also thought it was appropriate because it is the Year of the Horse, and we all know that in Chinese culture the Year of the Horse carries strongly positive symbols – representing energy, strength, freedom and forward momentum qualities deeply endured in traditional Chinese values.
As someone who travels Australia constantly on business, I also thought it appropriate because Queensland is the go-ahead State in Australia at the moment and “horse years” are often viewed as energetic, fast-paced and favourable for entrepreneurship.
You also need to be a bit careful because I looked a bit deeper into Chinese astrology and discovered that the Horse sign is modified by the Five Elements – the Wood Horse, the Earth Horse, the Metal Horse, the Water Horse and the Fire Horse.
This year, 2026, is the year of the Fire Horse – the most intense and famous variation, and is associated with Extreme Energy, Charisma, Highly Driven, Impulsive and Rebellious – with a general tone of passion, disruption and dramatic change.
Given that this cycle repeats itself every 60 years, the last Fire Horse year, 1996, is legendary because its influence was considered so strong that birth rates dipped in parts of Asia due to superstition about temperament – temperament forged around passion, disruption and constant dramatic change.
So, I want all those born in 1966 to stand up – it’s only fair that we know amongst us who is passionate, disruptive and constantly chasing dramatic change.
I also wanted to raise tonight the significance of Australia’s relationship with China.
Last year was the 10th Anniversary of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement or ChAFTA, which I am very proud to have had the opportunity to negotiate and sign.
In the year of the signing of ChAFTA combined trade between our two countries was $98 billion, ten years later in 2025 it was $330 billion.
To put this in perspective last year our combined trade with the US was $90 billion – the US bought $30 billion of goods and services from Australia, and Australia bought $60 billion from the US.
In the same year Australia bought $100 billion of goods and services from China, and China bought $230 billion from Australia.
This is a spectacular result and confirms that Free Trade works for the benefit of all despite the utterances and actions of President Trump.
ChAFTA created the growing awareness that what China was good at, Australia needed, and what Australia was good at China needed – it gave effect to the highly complementary nature of our two economies. The Agreement also gave impetus and substance to the fact that Chinese and Australian business people are very comfortable doing business with one another.
Finally, I wanted to pass an observation of what is happening in China.
I am Chairman of two Australian companies which do a lot of business with Chinese companies.
I’ve been to China 5 times in the last 15 months and fly there again tomorrow – my 60th visit since 1984 – and I can’t believe the extent of world leading technology emerging across China, yet most of the outside world has still not woken up to this fact.
The nation’s R & D investments increased nearly sixfold between 2007 and 2023, overtaking the EU’s and coming close to US figures.
Importantly, China has the human capital. In 2020, China produced 3.6 million graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), compared with 2.6 million in India and 820,000 in the US. And, in 2022, some 50,000 people in China graduated with STEM PhD’s compared with 34,000 in the US.
Over the last 35 to 40 years China’s development was achieved mainly by 250 million labourers moving from rural areas to urban ones, making the country the factory of the world, and driving over 60 per cent of world growth each year for much of the last 25 years, and being responsible for nearly 20 years of low inflation in the Western World due to their cheap exports.
By contrast, going forward, it will be young Chinese scientists who will drive progress. The huge China telecommunications company, Huawei has around 160,000 young engineers in the R & D department.
I recently visited SF Express, the 4th biggest parcel delivery company in the world, but largely operating in China.
I was in Shenzhen and witnessed one drone flight delivering 35 parcels across the city in 16 minutes where by truck it would have take one and a half hours.
This was one drone flight of 40,000 drone deliveries that day of 1.2 million parcels across 20 Chinese cities. Australia has not delivered one parcel by drone any day because of our unbelievably risk averse regulatory authority.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My best wishes for the year, and particular thanks to our Chinese Australian community who have played such a pivotal role in fostering the thousands of commercial relationships between our two great countries.