Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I wish to thank our nation's manufacturers who helped keep our country moving forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturers across Australia rose to the challenge of continuing to deliver their product while unlocking further potential to overcome the obstacles they faced. Regional Australia continues to be the backbone for manufacturing, with much of our success derived from the abundance of natural resources. Figures show that around 60 per cent of Australia's exports are derived from regional Australia. In my electorate of Capricornia there are many great manufacturing businesses that make a valued contribution to the local economy, like fabricators Dobinsons Spring & Suspension, who have been manufacturing vehicle parts for 70 years, and Plane Creek Sugar Mill in Sarina, who have crushed sugarcane since their inception in 1896 and now produce 180,000 tonnes of sugar per year. These are some of the great manufacturing businesses in my electorate, and they mirror similar manufacturing success stories right across Australia. It's growth like this that we all want to see continue well into the future.

Growth of our manufacturing industry and sovereign capability isn't something we should be advocating for; it's a necessity for the future of our nation. I doubt that anyone in this room would disagree with me. The Modern Manufacturing Strategy developed under the coalition government delivered $2.5 billion in investment to drive growth and innovation right across the manufacturing sector. This strategy focused on creating the perfect economic conditions required for business to make science and technology work for industry, focus on areas of advantage and ensure supply chains are more resilient. This is everything that the National Reconstruction Fund will decimate. The National Reconstruction Fund will undermine investment certainty in existing manufacturing areas of priority and erode investment confidence.

I find it extremely disappointing that the Albanese government is doing dodgy deals with the Greens party to push their agenda. It's an agenda with a poorly designed funding model in which there's a shift from competitive grants with robust processes to the government acquiring equity and loans. Government equity and loans are far less accessible than grants and only provide more barriers to manufacturers. This design is purposefully restrictive. They did a deal at the eleventh hour to rush through a flawed piece of legislation that fails to address the significant issues that our manufacturers need this government to show leadership on: high energy prices, disrupted supply chains and acute labour shortages.

Heavy industries remain a key feature of regional Australia. Many regional cities are based around the high-quality gas, coal and other natural resources that are highly sought after by countries right across the globe. In Queensland alone, $94.6 billion is delivered back into the economy from these industries that Labor want to stifle.

The Labor government are preaching that new technologies and net zero are our future. Australia is on the precipice of a key-resources mining boom to meet the high demand for critical minerals that are required when creating low-emission technologies, battery production and electric vehicles. An electric car requires six times the amount of minerals than a regular car. A wind turbine requires several more times the amount of minerals required for a gas- or coal-fired power station. More than 220 tonnes of coal is needed to build a wind turbine. It is a rather inconvenient truth for climate activists that, in order to decarbonise our nation, we need more mining and manufacturing that is based around coal and gas. We need to support the industries that will make this happen. We are almost at the one-year mark of the new government, and, sadly, there has been absolutely zero progress on supporting the manufacturing industry.

If you are able to read the fine print on the National Reconstruction Fund, it's plainly obvious that the only priorities you will see are for the Labor government to give jobs to their union mates and create an election slush fund. The Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union have demanded that any business who wishes to access the fund have union agreements in place and include union representatives on the board. This is just another case of unions feathering their own nest and not having the manufacturing industry's best interests at heart. The legislation put forward by the Albanese government will open the door to allowing the disgraceful behaviour of the unions to continue.

If you ask the manufacturing industry, like me they don't have high hopes for this fund, and nor should they. Labor's record on manufacturing is woeful, and it's concerning to think how much damage those opposite can and will do to the industry. I won't stand idly by and watch it happen. I'm going to be pushing to make sure the voices of Capricornia and of national manufacturers be heard and given the support they need to prosper.

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