AUSTRALIA'S free trade agreement with China will change Australia for the better, it will change China for the better, and it will change our region and our world for the better.
It will secure the jobs of generations of Australians to come. It will provide massive new markets for our entrepreneurs. It will provide investment opportunities that will enrich both peoples.
It is an agreement that is fundamentally fair, giving our nations unprecedented access to each other's markets. It removes barriers to Australian agricultural exports including beef, dairy, lamb, wine, horticulture and seafood - so much so that Meat and Livestock Australia forecast that their sector will benefit by $11 billion over the next decade. 
The FTA means duty free entry for 99.9 per cent of our resources, energy and manufacturing exports within four years - so much so that the Minerals Council of Australia says that this will remove nearly $600 million in costs from the bilateral minerals and energy trade.
Remarkably, China has agreed to Australia gaining the most substantial market access of any of its FTA partners, apart from Hong Kong and Macau.
Australian banks will be able to expand branch networks in China, Australian fund managers will be able to invest overseas on behalf of qualified Chinese institutions and Australian insurers will be able to provide third-party motor vehicle insurance in China.
As I travel around the country, I am often asked about Australia's jobs of the future. The answer is crystal clear: the jobs of the future will be found in the markets of the future.
Our efforts to secure the free trade agreement with China are all about better market access, more trade and more jobs. This free trade agreement is too important for our country; it's too important for the small and large businesses and it's too important for our children to be sacrificed at the altar of short-term opposition and xenophobic politics.
I hope that our political opponents will end their flirtation with the ideas and the fears of the past. This is a test of character for Labor, which first welcomed the China FTA but is now trying to stop it.
Freer trade is an essential part of any credible plan to build a strong, prosperous economy for a safe, secure Australia. Freer trade will strengthen and deepen the relationship between Australia and the nations of our region. Australia has nothing to fear and everything to gain.
There has been a massive scare campaign mounted against the China-Australia free trade agreement by the Labor Party and the union movement. But their claims are unfounded, xenophobic and wrong.
The FTA's labour mobility provisions protect the integrity of our labour market while allowing businesses to get skilled workers here where labour shortages exist. Everyone working in Australia will be employed under Australian wages and conditions and will have to meet Australian standards for qualifications. That's fair, that's reasonable and that's what we've agreed to.
The FTAs signed in the past year with Korea and with Japan as well as with China account for nearly 40 per cent of Australia's two-way trade in goods and services.
Our FTAs with South Korea and with Japan are only months old and yet we are already seeing increased exports, like a 34 per cent increase in frozen beef prime cuts to Korea and a 56 per cent increase to Japan in just 12 months.
Macadamia exports to Korea have more than doubled and Japan is importing 66 per cent more of our rolled or flaked oats.
There have been increases in wine, in lamb, in horticulture and other products as well.
This is a decisive moment for the economic future of Australia. We are in the right place at the right time with the right spirit and as far as I am concerned, we must and we will seize this moment.TONY ABBOTT IS PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA