Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The only constant in our lives is change. The best businesses, the best countries and the best communities all adapt to change. Australia is facing another period of change, especially our economy which is in transition in many sectors. Just as we have before, we will prevail and we will adapt. Our economy has diversified over the years with services like education, which is our third largest export with an annual value over $15 billion per year. The Minister for Education is doing a great job in making it an even better sector. Congratulations to him. Health care and tourism are also other services sectors which have increased over the years.

Sections of our economy are in transition. Energy and resources have done well and agriculture presents some real opportunities in terms of agribusinesses and supplying food and beverages to the growth sectors in the Asian middle class. With the rise of Asia as an economic powerhouse, by 2025 half of the world's output will come from Asia. Asian incomes have doubled over 10 years, which is far greater than in the United Kingdom where it took around 50 years during their periods of industrialisation. The Asian middle class want to purchase more Australian wine, hopefully from my state of South Australian or the member for Braddon's state Tasmania. Asians want to travel to our great countryside in Tasmania, in South Australia and around our great nation.

The economic storm clouds ahead with the decline of manufacturing present numerous challenges, with automotive manufactures departing Australia over the last two decades—Nissan in the 1990s and Mitsubishi in 2008, Holden, Ford and now Toyota. Australia is not alone in facing these economies transitioning. The US and Europe have been through it. I would like to go through a couple of interesting case studies. Sheffield in the United Kingdom suffered an economic decline from the 1970s when large steel firms failed to adapt to the changing economic landscape as the country began to deindustrialise. Of the 1,000 largest UK firms, those with headquarters in Sheffield fell from 22 in 1976 to just 13 in the late 1980s and unemployment soared to 16 per cent. Sheffield bounced back, however. Collaboration between the University of Sheffield and Boeing was the signature development in a new advanced manufacturing research centre and biomedical and health care were other niche areas which brought new jobs and new economic activity.

In the car industry, Torino in Italy was at the forefront with their engineering sector until the 1980s when the Fiat car company shifted production out of Italy to other places around the world. It once had 100,000 industrial jobs lost, including over 40,000 from the car industry alone. Political and industry leaders got together and promoted research and industrial innovation, capitalising on Torino's universities whose fed into industries. Business incubators were set up and entrepreneurism promoted. In 2006, things turned around. Torino was at its lowest ever rate of unemployment at 4.1 per cent and SMEs played a greater role in the economy, which had diversified.

Governments, local business and community leaders will always have some influence in the regeneration of cities and local economies. Last week the Prime Minister and the Minister for Industry made a major announcement on industry in Australia and an action plan for Australia's future. With the innovation and competitiveness agenda and industry growth centres, $190 million dedicated to the areas where we are competitively advantaged, where we do have some strengths—food and agribusiness, mining equipment, medical technologies and advanced manufacturing. Business SA in my state commented that we are well positioned to take advantage of future growth opportunities across these five sectors. And Business SA rightly stated that industry must lead growth. These industry growth sectors will foster better use by industry of Australia's world class researchers, so we will see better returns from the $9 billion annual Commonwealth investment in research.

Employee share ownership schemes are another great initiative. An entrepreneur in Adelaide who is a member of Entrepreneurs Organisation SA told me earlier this year that he is 'very supportive of share incentive schemes'. Our state in particular needs more entrepreneurs like the drivers of Clipsal, Deborah Rathjen of Bionomics, Tim and Glenn Cooper of Coopers, Maurice Crotti of San Remo, Tammy May of MyBudget and Richard Turner of ZEN. Only pro-business governments will provide the necessary incentives for entrepreneurs to emerge and create jobs. Unfortunately the South Australian Labor government, with its high-taxing ways, is no such government, but the federal government has made tracks. We have reduced taxes and provided a better business environment. Change will always be there. Industry needs to adopt. We need community leadership and business leadership to get us through.