Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Swan for her question. I congratulate her on her magnificent first speech as well as her election to this place. She brings experience as an engineer in the mining industry around Kalgoorlie and around Western Australia to this House, and she adds so much to the quality of the House of Representatives by her election.

The pandemic showed that Australia is at the end of a global supply chain, and that's a very precarious place to be. We know that future challenges could arrive, be they future pandemics, issues of cybersecurity or international security, and we know that one of the lessons is that we need to be more resilient as an economy. For a decade we've seen manufacturing leave this country. Most significant of course was the car industry, which was dared to leave by those opposite. That had real consequences throughout the supply chain. It had real consequences not just for the direct jobs affected but for the innovation and industry that goes with car industries, which is why other countries around the world back their car industry. We've also seen a refusal to invest in new industries like renewables. We've seen opportunities lost in that area.

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