Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. A key part of the economic plan that Labor took to the election was for a future made in Australia. What work is the government doing to bring about that future?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Swan for her question. I congratulate her on her magnificent first speech as well as her election to this place. She brings experience as an engineer in the mining industry around Kalgoorlie and around Western Australia to this House, and she adds so much to the quality of the House of Representatives by her election.

The pandemic showed that Australia is at the end of a global supply chain, and that's a very precarious place to be. We know that future challenges could arrive, be they future pandemics, issues of cybersecurity or international security, and we know that one of the lessons is that we need to be more resilient as an economy. For a decade we've seen manufacturing leave this country. Most significant of course was the car industry, which was dared to leave by those opposite. That had real consequences throughout the supply chain. It had real consequences not just for the direct jobs affected but for the innovation and industry that goes with car industries, which is why other countries around the world back their car industry. We've also seen a refusal to invest in new industries like renewables. We've seen opportunities lost in that area.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business: it had better be on a point of order. What is the point of order?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's on relevance, Mr Speaker. The question was: what work is the government doing to bring about that future? It wasn't an open-ended invitation to criticise the record, and make incorrect allegations about the record, of the previous government.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. What the Prime Minister is saying is directly relevant to the question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we need is a government that backs Australian workers, that backs Australian industries and that backs Australian innovation and creativity. And we have just that. Through our National Reconstruction Fund we will have a $15 billion fund to support existing industries to transform, but also to support new industries to be created. We have in this country everything that goes into a battery—for example, we have nickel, we have copper and we have lithium. Yet, most of it is manufactured overseas. We need to value-add here. Our resources sector will continue to be important in terms of exporting, but where we can we should be value-adding, creating jobs and creating advanced manufacturing right here in this country. One way that we can do that is by having cheaper, cleaner energy, which will drive down the cost of manufacturing in this country. We can advance food processing and value-add to agriculture. We can add in terms of defence industry, as well. We're a world leader in science. We have been responsible for so much of the innovation throughout the world but we haven't commercialised those opportunities. We have a commitment for there to be 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030. We'll also be a government that buys Australian, that uses our purchasing power to support small businesses in this country. We need a future made in Australia. We need to be able to stand on our own two feet, and that is one of the lessons that we have from the pandemic. We've learnt it, we've developed a plan and we'll set about implementing that plan over this term of government.