Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister for industry. What's the Albanese Labor government doing to revitalise Australian manufacturing, why is this important for manufacturing jobs and what are the threats to creating these new jobs?

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

I thank the member for Paterson. This is a member who gets it. The member for Paterson understands manufacturing matters. There are thousands of people employed across the Hunter who owe their livelihoods to manufacturing and some really great firms like Energy Renaissance in the member's electorate, who are looking to have Aussie-made batteries right here available for us—great work. Revitalising manufacturing is a critical priority for the country. Some of the world's biggest economies owe their success to having very healthy manufacturing within them. These countries also get they need to become more self-sufficient, and the Albanese government gets this too. It's one of the reasons why we don't want our country to be reliant on concentrated or broken supply chains, and dealing with this is a big part of our plan to take up the fight on inflation and also put downward pressure on interest rates.

It's why we're, for example, calling on the parliament to join with us in setting up the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, one of the greatest investments in national manufacturing capability in living memory, and the growth capital unlocked by the National Reconstruction Fund will be crucial, good for the economy, good for industry and unbelievably good for jobs. Nearly 900,000 Australians are employed as a result of manufacturing in over 90,000 firms, one-third of which are outside of our capital cities. Our national ambition should be to see that number grow in our outer suburbs, in our regions and in remote Australia.

Our other ambition should be to keep Australian companies onshore and good ideas and jobs here. Made in Australia; made overseas—that's the big difference. I've met Australian businesses here and overseas who want a future made in Australia. Those firms, some of which have moved overseas, will sometimes say how hard it is to get the growth capital they need on home soil, which is precisely the issue the National Reconstruction Fund wants to deal with. This government knows how much Australians can't stand it when Australian firms have to leave our shores for a lack of support.

Most Australians get it, except it seems the Liberal and National parties—the same parties who pushed auto manufacturing offshore, presided over a decade of neglect and voted against energy price relief to help manufacturers. Now they want to oppose manufacturers getting access to growth by the NRF: no to manufacturing, no to jobs, no to growth and no to Australian know-how. When it comes to supporting the NRF and Australian manufacturing, those opposite say, 'No way, know-how.' I would ask manufacturers from our outer suburbs and regions who might represented by a Liberal or National party MP just to ask those MPs why they only ever support manufacturing when there's a TV camera around.