Senator Tim Ayres says food prices on the agenda at G20 conference in Bali

Australia should be open to new free trade agreements and the war in Ukraine must be brought to an end if food prices are to come down, Labor senator Tim Ayres says.

The Assistant Trade Minister will make the conflict in Eastern Europe a focus of his talks with international agriculture and tourism ministers at a series of G20 meetings in the Indonesian province of Bali this week.

“It is one of the principal drivers of inflation and price shocks and pressure on the energy sector (which) is absolutely the same impact in Australia as it is everywhere else around the world,” Senator Ayres told NCA NewsWire.

“And that’s why it’s so important for the international community to act consistently, isolate Russia, put the maximum pressure on them to withdraw forces from Ukraine and put this sorry episode to an end.”

Asked what specific measures he would propose in Bali to reduce the price of food, Senator Ayres said reaffirming the need for Russia to end its war had to be “the focus of international discussions”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February spiralled into a protracted conflict that has killed thousands of people and sent shockwaves through the global economy.

Energy prices have risen as the West weans itself off Russian coal and gas after slapping sanctions on Moscow in response to the conflict.

Ukraine’s food exports have also been badly affected.

With Australian inflation running at a 30-year high of 6.1 per cent, Senator Ayres will tell the G20 conference that “free and open trade in agriculture and food” would also help bring prices down.

His visit to Indonesia comes as negotiations for a free trade deal between Australia and the European Union are coming close to being finalised, with hopes an agreement will be ratified by 2024.

Senator Ayres, who spent part of his career before entering parliament working in farming, said the Australian agriculture industry had “challenges to overcome” in the global trading environment.

“There is still too much protectionism in global agriculture trade,” he said.

“And there’s a lot of work to do to open up new markets for Australian agriculture in global trading arrangements.”

Senator Ayres said Labor was committed to opening up new markets for Australian meat, grain and vegetables.

“Right now, of course, it’s the war in Ukraine that’s taken everybody’s attention,” he said.

Senator Ayres will also promote Australia’s tourism strategy, which aims to increase revenue from visitors to $230bn by 2030, when he speaks to his international colleagues in Bali.

The strategy sets a target of returning visitor expenditure to pre-pandemic levels of $166 billion by 2024.

With the local tourism operators struggling with a dearth of workers, Senator Ayres flagged he was open to the possibility of allocating more skilled migrant visas to the sector.

The Albanese government after its jobs summit earlier this month said it would lift the permanent migration cap by 35,000 places to 195,000 spots.

Senator Ayres indicated some people who migrated under the program could be recruited to work in tourism.

“What we’ve got to do is carefully do that work and match that requirement carefully,” Senator Ayres said.

“I don’t have a number in front of me, and I’m not sure that the government actually has a fix on the number.”

Made up of 19 countries and the European Union, the G20 represents the largest economies in the world which account for more than 80 per cent of all gross domestic product.

This year‘s G20 meetings are being held in Bali, with world leaders to attend the main summit in mid-November.