Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources, Forestry and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I suggest to the House that much has been said in recent times, especially since the budget, of the windfall gains to Australia from the resources boom and the importance of not squandering these benefits. Alternatively, not enough has been said, not just this year or last but for many years, about the decline of support for industry under this government.

It must be acknowledged that there are very different views on each side of politics about the role of government support for industry, but the withdrawal of the Howard government from such a critical area of policy is of grave concern. Just look at the automotive manufacturing industry in Australia at the moment if you have any doubts about the concerns with respect to industry policy in Australia.

Putting politics aside, there has been some academic work done on sectors of industry but little research on an overarching industry policy since the late 1990s. While I would not suggest that academia takes its lead from government, I think the decline in research is in part testimony to the lack of government vision for industry in Australia. This reflects the importance of government leadership, not just in developing good policy but in stimulating debate about good policy.

As has been repeatedly said, it is in times of prosperity that government can afford to assist other areas of the economy so that when the inevitable downturn to the resources cycle occurs Australia will be better positioned to cope. I believe the Prime Minister should be fully aware of this, given his long political history. He has indeed cited the biggest challenge in times of prosperity as the pitfalls of complacency. The Prime Minister said:

Complacency is the giant killer of Australian politics.

In a recent opinion piece, John Roskam, of the Institute of Public Affairs, concluded that the Prime Minister might have added that ‘complacency is the giant killer of good policy’. Like many other commentators, Roskam is worried that Australia is experiencing its own resources curse. He has argued that, in countries with access to effortless wealth, there is no imperative for political or economic reform. They become tardy about their duties. Neither is there any concern to ensure that growth is sustainable. He says:

Elites concentrate on distributing income rather than generating it.

That is an interesting consideration. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recent budget. It is also reflected in the government’s approach to industry policy. Having slashed the Labor Party’s industry policies, to the outcry of industry, the Howard government has exited the industry stage and dropped the curtain on Australia’s future economic performance.

Two inquiries have been launched, with the support of state governments, into manufacturing industries and services industries beyond the resources boom. It is the responsibility of a House committee. This is important from my portfolio point of view because of my responsibilities for the tourism sector, a key sector in the services sector of the Australian economy, especially in regional and remote localities.

I also suggest to the House that a whole of government approach to industry policy would have been working to develop these sectors for many years. Unfortunately, under this government there has been no vision for industry. In an analysis of the government’s industry policy a few years ago Evan Jones, from the University of Sydney, concluded that ‘current industry policy is steeped in ambiguity’. He went on to describe it as a ‘policy vacuum’.

When we look at mining, it is important to remember that it is only four per cent of gross domestic product. What is more sobering is that this figure is little different from the figure of 30 years ago. So we have not come far, and we should have learnt from the past cycle of boom and bust. The industry employs only one per cent of the workforce, only half of the employees it did 20 years ago.

So, yes, the resources sector is important from an export earnings point of view, but there are also challenges. I believe these statistics show that, more than ever, there is a need for this government to develop a sound industrial policy to lay the groundwork for economic prosperity into the future. It not only concerns us in the context of industry policy; it also raises the serious question of investing in education and training. Without the ongoing skilling of the Australian workforce, we cannot develop industry policy because the human capital is required to make the investment bear fruit in Australia. I say to the House this evening: don’t just rest on our laurels by distributing the benefit of the present resource boom with tax cuts and add-ons, but think about our requirement to use some of those resources to invest in our future. We need industry policy and skilling policy to guarantee our future. (Time expired)