Senator thanks colleagues for supporting Israel initiative
Family First Senator Bob Day has thanked his Senate colleagues today for supporting his push to open a free trade dialogue with Israel.
Senator Bob Day with Avi Hasson
The South Australian senator said: “Israel outranks Australia on the Bloomberg Global Innovation Index. We have free trade agreements with the countries occupying 1st (Japan), 2nd (South Korea) and 6th (USA) places”, Senator Day said, “I was pleased to hear, in response to my question during Question Time, the Minister announcing that Ministers Pyne and Brandis are travelling soon to Israel. This continues a long history of trade delegations to Israel, but as the Minister conceded, we perhaps have not followed up those delegations well in the past.”
“Israel has an outstanding record for tech start-ups and innovation and with its ‘Silicon Wadi’ my home state of South Australia knows very well how innovative Israel is. We adopted their drip irrigation technology decades ago to substantially reduce our salinity in the Murray River, and to radically improve the food production per megalitre of water applied to our crops.”
“I was also staggered to learn that Israel has mastered desalination now to the extent that they can produce drinking water at a third of the cost of what SA Water are currently doing it. Why not embrace Israel to help us save money and better use technology?”
Senator Day has also attended a briefing with Israel’s chief scientist Avi Hasson, in Canberra.
Senator Day said he looked forward to a feasibility study into a Free Trade Deal being completed within the next six months.
