Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Australian manufacturing:

(i) has undergone significant transformation over the past few decades;

(ii) is a hub for research and development, capital investment and innovative businesses and products; and

(iii) is our sixth largest industry, producing $137 billion of value-added output and employs 930,000 people;

(b) Australian manufacturers can design, produce, and scale high-tech, high-value goods using cutting-edge processes, a skilled workforce, and integrated supply chains but we must be focused on building an advanced manufacturing capability for our country;

(c) if we want a prosperous and secure Australia, we must prioritise domestic production and unleash our own energy resources to reduce the crippling energy costs and provide the reliable, firm base load power that our manufacturers need to be competitive; and

(d) the fight to save Australian manufacturing and reclaim our national sovereignty must enable our local industries to challenge the policies that have left our country vulnerable to foreign imports and skyrocketing costs; and

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) regional industry is not seeking a handout, but a level playing field;

(b) without immediate policy intervention to address the energy disparity and the lack of import quality standards, the region risks permanent industrial decline; and

(c) Australia needs a National Import Quality Taskforce to stop sub-standard foreign dumping, offering royalty discounts for companies that procure 100 per cent Australian-made items, and overhauling the 'Australian Made' logo fees so local workshops are not charged a premium just to tell the world where their goods were built.

Australia has, over decades, all but lost the manufacturing industry, and the current Labor government are determined to kill off the rest. Australia has lost the manufacturing industry due to higher wages, low productivity, excessive red and green tape, inflexible IR laws and high energy costs. Under the Albanese Labor government, none of these things are getting any better. We have the engineers and the tradies, the best and brightest people that can design, produce, scale up and manufacture in this country, and we don't have to suffer through this continual decline.

You can't make things like cars or do any complex engineering feats without the simple processes of making the small things, and the coalition has a plan. With computers, AI and robotics we can increase productivity. When you increase productivity, you can actually increase people's wages; you could pay higher wages. The coalition is supportive of paying higher wages as long as you get the productivity. But all these changes are energy intensive. Energy is the manufacturing industry. Energy is the economy. And it's fair to say that Labor is certainly failing in the energy policy sphere.

When I travel around talking to and, more importantly, listening to manufacturers, they tell me that the No. 1 issue, the No. 1 problem, that manufacturers face in this country is energy costs, including fuel. Electricity costs under the Labor government have gone up 40 per cent; gas has skyrocketed. Manufacturers can't compete with their overseas competitors. What we need to enhance manufacturing in this country is abundant, cheap, reliable energy, energy that is available 24/7, not just when the sun shines or the wind blows. When heavy industry are casting something, whether it be copper, zinc or whatever it is, they might have molten liquid there at around 1,000 degrees. With intermittent, unreliable energy, if that stops, then all of a sudden everything stops. It's not molten anymore. It goes back to solids, creating a massive problem.

The manufacturing industry is also capital intensive, so you need to be able to run the industry 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Otherwise, it simply doesn't stack up. You cannot do that with renewable energy, even backed up by batteries. Capital is portable, so, when international companies are looking at where they are going to invest, we need to make sure that they come to Australia and we need to make sure that we have the settings right so they can bring manufacturing to this country.

The coalition has a sensible energy plan. We will scrap net zero. The net zero fantasy is destroying industry in Australia and is bankrupting manufacturing all while making Australians poorer and dropping our living standards. The coalition has a cheaper, better, fairer plan. It's cheaper because we're going to keep our existing coal-fired power stations running longer, and coal fired is the cheapest way of making an electron. We're going to be energy agnostic—whatever is the cheapest that is generated and delivered to the business, to the manufacturer, to the industry and to the household. It's better because we're not going to allow solar panels on good-quality agricultural land; we're not going to allow the 28,000 kilometres of poles and wires. And it's going to be fairer because we're still going to cut emissions, but we're going to do it in line with other OECD countries. We're going to scrap the safeguard mechanism, which is actually just a carbon tax 2.0 that's upsetting every one of our heavy emitters. Folks, we can do better, and the Labor government needs to do better.

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