Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We hear a lot from this government about a future made in Australia. It's a great headline and a great pitch, but I want to ask today: how real is it? Recently I visited a business in Wetherill Park, right in the heart of my electorate—Mario & Sons Steel Fabrication, a proud family owned business that has been part of our community since 1966, nearly 60 years. They fabricate and install structural steel for major distribution hubs, data centres and large warehouse facilities. They supply the steel that helps build infrastructure for some of the most recognisable brands in this country. This is exactly the kind of business we say we want to support when we talk about Australian made—local jobs and sovereign capability.

But, when I sat down with Livio Palozzo, his brothers and the next generation of their family who have now joined the business, I heard a very different story, a deeply concerning story. This is not a business that has failed to work hard enough. It is not a business that has cut corners on quality. Livio and his family told me plainly that Australian steel fabricators can no longer compete on price. They face enormous domestic pressures, higher labour costs, payroll tax, rising electricity bills, heavy freight costs, fuel costs and the constant weight of compliance. When you add all of that together, local manufacturers are being priced out of the very markets they helped build.

For a long time, quality was their protection. Builders trusted Australian steel. But Mario & Sons told me that it's no longer enough. Imported steel from China, South Korea and Japan has improved significantly. When overseas product is now comparable in quality and substantially cheaper, Australian steel is being bypassed at a tendering stage. The consequences are catastrophic. Mario & Sons has been forced to halve its production workforce in just three years. Longstanding clients have walked away. Their forward pipeline is emptying out, and they're watching other local businesses in the industry close their doors entirely. In Wetherill Park alone, more suppliers, like the InfraBuild Steel Centre, have already shut down. That is a flashing red light for the entire manufacturing ecosystem in Western Sydney.

The Australian Steel Institute has formally applied for safeguard measures, including a tariff rate quota, to give local industry breathing room to adjust. The Productivity Commission is conducting that inquiry right now. The government has no excuse for delay. We already accept this logic in other industries. The government subsidised our two remaining domestic oil refineries because it understands their importance to our national economic security. Why would we not apply the same logic to domestic steel manufacturing? Businesses like Mario & Sons are not asking for special treatment; they're asking for a fair chance to compete, to keep their workers in jobs, to keep making things here in Australia. I'm calling on the government to act, to give businesses like Mario & Sons the support they need to survive and to fix the system that is currently working against those very people. (Time expired)