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I must be the only person who was closely following UK-Australia relations over the past five years, because not one person on the internet seems to know why the UK hired Abbott as trade envoy (Hint: It’s not because he’s an “expert in trade.)
Boris has wanted free trade and free movement with Australia for years but Australia wasn’t interested. Effectively, he wants to replace the EU market with the Asian-Pacific market, and replace EU workers with Australian workers.
He said it’s unfair we have the queen as head of state, but are restricted from working long-term in the UK (unless we have a parent or grandparent born there.) And on that one point, he’s correct. They officially proposed it to Australia in Jan, but Morrison knocked them back.
Morrison said he didn’t want educated people leaving Australia (even though he cut academics out of Jobkeeper and a large number of educated people were on Jobseeker before Covid.) The only prominent Australian Conservative who supports free movement with the UK? Tony Abbott.
They’re using Abbott to convince the rest of the LNP to give them a sweet trade deal (including the movement of people.) They want an agreement similar to the Trans-Tasman agreement we have with NZ. They also want in on our trade with Asia. The end.
Oh, one last thing. Morrison signing an agreement with a UK pharmaceutical company (rather than the US or anywhere else) for our Covid vaccine likely has some connection. If the vaccine is a success, he may grant them what they want as a thank you.
