Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Will the minister please update the House on how the Morrison government's economic recovery plan is backing Australia's heavy industry to create jobs, especially in our regions. Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the member for his support and for his continued support of heavy industry in Australia. We are, as a government, incredibly proud of our great heavy industries, and particularly those heavy industries in our regional areas—BlueScope Steel, InfraBuild, Capral Aluminium, Paper Australia, Bisley and many others—and this government has been absolutely committed to supporting those industries. In fact, earlier this year the CEO of BlueScope in Australia said:

I've not had the sort of feedback and positive context that we've had out of Canberra on sovereign capability ever in my lifetime of managing these tough businesses like steel businesses.

He told The Australian that support for Australian industry was the strongest he had seen in decades in the manufacturing business.

That sort of support is critically important. Looking at aluminium and steel alone, they contribute $4.7 billion and $11 billion respectively to the Australian economy, and they're directly and indirectly responsible for the employment of 125,000 Australians. Many of those sectors were affected by COVID, of course, but we have been supporting those heavy industries through COVID with JobKeeper. In this recent budget, we've reconfigured the antidumping system, which is critically important to these industries—65 per cent of the current antidumping measures relate to steel and aluminium products. We announced a $2.6 million package to assist Australian manufacturers to improve their capability when applying for Commonwealth government procurement. We have also put forward the $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy, which is getting money out the door to important industry, including heavy industry.

When you look across the board, all the levers are heading in the same direction to support heavy industry. There is the instant asset write-off, the JobTrainer skills reform and even HomeBuilder had an impact on demand for aluminium domestically in Australia. So that great program has not just put money into people's pockets to help them buy and build homes; it has increased demand for a critical heavy industry product in Australia. The outcome of all this is that these industries have come out of COVID as strong as ever. Blue Scope, for instance, has announced that it will expand its Port Kembla smelter after recording a 78 per cent lift in its first-half profits. What a remarkable change, after the challenge of COVID.

I was asked about alternative policies. There are alternative policies, and those policies are, basically, to view these as carbon-intensive industries and give them no support. That's what you get from members opposite. Indeed, the member from Hunter summed Labor up when he said:

We need to demonstrate a new policy pathway and dramatically change the narrative. We can’t have working people believing our policies place their jobs under threat.