Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction. Can the minister confirm that in October last year, industry minister No. 6 said that we would establish mRNA manufacturing capability within the year and that in May this year industry minister No. 7 said, 'You're looking at a 12-month-plus time frame,' and that now we have industry minister No. 8 saying, 'We're looking at two years, but can't be sure'? When are you going to stop making and remaking announcements, and actually deliver locally manufactured mRNA vaccines in Australia?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's important to note that we have manufactured 23 million vaccines in this country, and that we have more than a million people working in manufacturing in this country. Those opposite got rid of one in eight a jobs in manufacturing when they were in government, but they love to twist and distort the truth. The member opposite talked about Minister Andrews, who said at the time that any time frame would depend on a range of factors—that's what she said. That includes whether it's a brownfield or a greenfield site or whether we need access to R&D and intellectual property as part of it.

As we recover from COVID-19, we want to make sure we are well placed to control our destiny and, in an uncertain world, that means it's more important than ever to have sovereign manufacturing capability. That's why we're developing a pathway to onshore manufacturing, not just of the vaccines that we've already manufactured but more broadly for mRNA capability—mRNA vaccines. There are two benefits from this. On the health side, if we are struck with another pandemic, whether it's COVID or indeed flu pandemics, we will be well positioned to speedily provide that mRNA support. But there is also an economic and industry opportunity here too. We support manufacturing in this country and we support industry in this country—and it is important that they have access to the affordable reliable energy they need. We are back to over a million jobs in manufacturing.

But we want to see new areas of technology like mRNA developing here in Australia. That's why we are pursuing a two-part process. We are having discussions with Moderna. I should point out that there are only two companies in the world that have developed and are selling mRNA vaccines right now, and Moderna is one of them, and that no new mRNA manufacturing facility has been built in the world since COVID struck. One is planned for Singapore but is several years away. We don't know when that's actually going to arrive. We're having important discussions with Moderna, and there is great potential in that. We have also gone through an approach to market. We have received a number of submissions. We are working through those and we will have something more to say about that in the coming days and weeks. But one thing that Australians can be sure of is that we back manufacturing in this country. We back manufacturing in this country every day of the week.