Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Australian manufacturing:

(i) has undergone significant transformation over the past few decades;

(ii) is a hub for research and development, capital investment and innovative businesses and products; and

(iii) is our sixth largest industry, producing $137 billion of value-added output and employs 930,000 people;

(b) Australian manufacturers can design, produce, and scale high-tech, high-value goods using cutting-edge processes, a skilled workforce, and integrated supply chains but we must be focused on building an advanced manufacturing capability for our country;

(c) if we want a prosperous and secure Australia, we must prioritise domestic production and unleash our own energy resources to reduce the crippling energy costs and provide the reliable, firm base load power that our manufacturers need to be competitive; and

(d) the fight to save Australian manufacturing and reclaim our national sovereignty must enable our local industries to challenge the policies that have left our country vulnerable to foreign imports and skyrocketing costs; and

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) regional industry is not seeking a handout, but a level playing field;

(b) without immediate policy intervention to address the energy disparity and the lack of import quality standards, the region risks permanent industrial decline; and

(c) Australia needs a National Import Quality Taskforce to stop sub-standard foreign dumping, offering royalty discounts for companies that procure 100 per cent Australian-made items, and overhauling the 'Australian Made' logo fees so local workshops are not charged a premium just to tell the world where their goods were built.

Australia has, over decades, all but lost the manufacturing industry, and the current Labor government are determined to kill off the rest. Australia has lost the manufacturing industry due to higher wages, low productivity, excessive red and green tape, inflexible IR laws and high energy costs. Under the Albanese Labor government, none of these things are getting any better. We have the engineers and the tradies, the best and brightest people that can design, produce, scale up and manufacture in this country, and we don't have to suffer through this continual decline.

You can't make things like cars or do any complex engineering feats without the simple processes of making the small things, and the coalition has a plan. With computers, AI and robotics we can increase productivity. When you increase productivity, you can actually increase people's wages; you could pay higher wages. The coalition is supportive of paying higher wages as long as you get the productivity. But all these changes are energy intensive. Energy is the manufacturing industry. Energy is the economy. And it's fair to say that Labor is certainly failing in the energy policy sphere.

When I travel around talking to and, more importantly, listening to manufacturers, they tell me that the No. 1 issue, the No. 1 problem, that manufacturers face in this country is energy costs, including fuel. Electricity costs under the Labor government have gone up 40 per cent; gas has skyrocketed. Manufacturers can't compete with their overseas competitors. What we need to enhance manufacturing in this country is abundant, cheap, reliable energy, energy that is available 24/7, not just when the sun shines or the wind blows. When heavy industry are casting something, whether it be copper, zinc or whatever it is, they might have molten liquid there at around 1,000 degrees. With intermittent, unreliable energy, if that stops, then all of a sudden everything stops. It's not molten anymore. It goes back to solids, creating a massive problem.

The manufacturing industry is also capital intensive, so you need to be able to run the industry 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Otherwise, it simply doesn't stack up. You cannot do that with renewable energy, even backed up by batteries. Capital is portable, so, when international companies are looking at where they are going to invest, we need to make sure that they come to Australia and we need to make sure that we have the settings right so they can bring manufacturing to this country.

The coalition has a sensible energy plan. We will scrap net zero. The net zero fantasy is destroying industry in Australia and is bankrupting manufacturing all while making Australians poorer and dropping our living standards. The coalition has a cheaper, better, fairer plan. It's cheaper because we're going to keep our existing coal-fired power stations running longer, and coal fired is the cheapest way of making an electron. We're going to be energy agnostic—whatever is the cheapest that is generated and delivered to the business, to the manufacturer, to the industry and to the household. It's better because we're not going to allow solar panels on good-quality agricultural land; we're not going to allow the 28,000 kilometres of poles and wires. And it's going to be fairer because we're still going to cut emissions, but we're going to do it in line with other OECD countries. We're going to scrap the safeguard mechanism, which is actually just a carbon tax 2.0 that's upsetting every one of our heavy emitters. Folks, we can do better, and the Labor government needs to do better.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Tom French (Moore, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion because Australian manufacturing matters. It matters to our economy, our regions, our national security and the dignity of skilled work in this country. The motion correctly notes that manufacturing is our sixth-largest industry, producing billions of value added output and employing 930,000 Australians. It also correctly notes that Australian manufacturers can design, produce and scale high-tech, high-value goods. On that much, there is no dispute.

But what this motion omits is just as important as what it includes. It omits the record of those opposite. It omits the closure of the car industry. It omits the years of drift, delay and ideological hostility to active industry policy. It omits the fact that, when Australian manufacturing needed a government to stand up for it, those opposite told the industry to fend for itself. We will not be lectured by the very people who helped close the car industry and then turned up years later in hi-vis vests pretending to be shop stewards for Australian industry. Manufacturing does not survive on nostalgia. It does not survive on slogans. It survives on investment, skills, procurement, energy policy, supply chains and confidence.

That is why the Albanese Labor government is delivering a future made in Australia. This is serious industry policy. It is about making Australia stronger, more resilient and more secure. It is about backing workers, backing businesses and making sure more things are made here. The world has changed. Wars, supply shocks, trade disruption and strategic competition have reminded us that a country that cannot make things leaves itself exposed. That does not mean Australia must make everything. It means we must make more of the things that matter: critical minerals, metals, clean energy, defence capability, advanced manufacturing, AI, quantum, research, innovation. At the centre of that work is the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, which is actually putting real capital behind Australian industry.

And that is the difference between this side of the House and those opposite. They give speeches about manufacturing; we invest in it. In Western Australia, we understand the importance of building capability. We understand the trades, we understand resources, and we understand fabrication, heavy industry and the value of a skilled workforce. That is why I'm proud that we are building trains in the west. Now, some will say that, if only part of the construction is local, it's not good enough. I understand that argument—I want more local content, more WA workers, more apprentices, more fabrication and more supply chain work done here—but do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You do not build manufacturing by refusing to start. You rebuild it by placing orders, training workers, building facilities, improving capability and lifting local content over time. A workshop does not become world class because someone moves a motion in this place. It gets there because it receives real work, real contracts, real apprentices, real investment and real continuity.

The motion also talks about energy costs. Fair enough—manufacturers need affordable and reliable energy. But those opposite want this country to forget the system they left behind: ageing assets, weak investment and uncertainty. Labor is doing the hard work—Rewiring the Nation, the Capacity Investment Scheme, firmed renewables, grid modernisation and a practical gas policy for manufacturers that still need gas as a feedstock or transitional fuel.

The motion also raises imports and dumping. Again, the government is acting. We are strengthening Australia's trade remedy system, making it more accessible, delivering faster decisions and better protecting Australian businesses from unfair practices.

Manufacturing policy requires discipline. It requires a government that understands that skills, procurement, energy, trade, research and industrial relations are all connected. Those opposite had a decade and they delivered drift, denial and decline—and now they oppose the National Reconstruction Fund, Rewiring the Nation and the very tools required to rebuild capability.

So, yes, let's talk about Australian manufacturing. But let's be honest: manufacturing will not be built by those who only discover it in opposition. It will be built by investment, procurement, skills, energy certainty and national purpose. Labor is not standing on the sidelines, hoping manufacturing comes back; we are getting on with the job of rebuilding it. (Time expired)

Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion because the debate is not theoretical; it is about whether this country still makes things and whether the people who make these things can afford to keep doing so in this country.

Manufacturing is Australia's sixth-largest industry, producing $137 billion of value-added output every year and employing over 930,000 Australians. It's not in Canberra boardrooms or in the Labor Party room run by the unions but on the factory floors in regional towns, where the local manufacturer is often the largest employer within that district. This is an industry that has transformed itself into a hub of research, capital investment and innovation. Our manufacturers can design, build and scale high-tech, high-value goods using world-class processes with a world-class skilled workforce. The capacity is here. What is missing is a government willing to back them.

Here is the truth this government must acknowledge and confront: you cannot run an advanced manufacturing sector on the back of the highest energy costs in the developed world. Reliable, affordable base-load power is not a luxury for manufacturers; it is the foundation everything else is built on. Every policy that has driven up energy costs while strangling the development of our own gas and energy resources has made every single one of those 930,000 Australian jobs less secure.

This is where I must direct the focus back to the budget this government has just handed down. Manufacturers were told to expect a cheaper plan for more reliable power. What they got was a $1 billion interest-free loan to help them survive a fuel and supply chain crisis that this government did not see coming—a rescue package dressed up as reform. Industry has already said it plainly: this budget does not provide a clear path to lower industrial costs in the face of rising energy prices. You do not build sovereign manufacturing capability on emergency loans; you build it on cheaper, reliable power every day, every year, not just when there's a crisis. While this government has spent $18 billion in this budget on net zero initiatives, manufacturers right across regional Australia are paying the price with their power bills. This is a direct result of the last four years of policy that has shut down base-load generation faster than it has been replaced.

A budget serious about manufacturing would have started at the cost of energy. This one didn't. Let's be honest about what regional manufacturers are actually asking for—not a handout, but a level playing field. They are competing against many substandard imported products that would never pass our own quality and safety standards if they were made in Australia, undercutting local workshops doing the right thing. That is a failure of this government to defend its own industry.

That's why this motion calls for a national import quality taskforce to stop substandard foreign dumping at our border. It's why we're calling for royalty discounts for companies that procure 100 per cent Australian-made products. And it's why we call for an overhaul of the 'Australian Made' logo fees, because it makes no sense that a small regional workshop must pay a premium just to tell the world where the product was built. We don't need to wait for a budget to make these changes. If this government were serious about backing our manufacturers, they would have taken this action by now. Without policy intervention on energy costs and imported standards, regional manufacturers do not stagnate; they decline permanently. A billion dollars in loans buys an industry a few more months. It won't buy them a future.

This is about national sovereignty as much as it is economics. A country that cannot make its own steel, its own components or its own equipment has handed control of its own future to somebody else. This budget, by its own government's design, was forced to spend its way out of that very vulnerability—emergency fuel reserves, emergency loans, emergency stockholdings—because the underlying weakness was never fixed. Regional industry are not asking for sympathy or another emergency package the next time there is a global shock; they are asking for a fair fight, affordable energy, honest competition and a government that values what Australia can produce. I commend this motion to the chamber.

Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against this motion. In doing so, I'm very pleased that the member for Dawson is here today, because it gives me a chance to discuss this in front of him. The last time I was speaking about manufacturing, and the pinning of blame for the Australian car industry walking out the door and overseas, he was able to somehow misinterpret those comments, blaming the Albanese government for being responsible for the end of our car industry.

It is not without some irony that I read the first line of the member for Dawson's motion, which is:

Noting that Australian manufacturing has undergone significant transformation over the past decades …

That is an understatement of epic proportions. Let's just look at the two elements of that first line. The first is: Who was in government over the past few decades? Who's been in government for most of the last 30 years? That's the coalition government. That's an easy one to answer. When they talk about 'significant transformation', what they really mean, surely, is the decimation of our manufacturing industry. To begin with that statement is either spectacular irony or it is that they've completely missed the point. It was their policies over the last three decades or so.

I guess the member for Dawson would also probably be inclined to agree with a bit of what I have to say, because, deep within the heart of the National Party, I've always seen that there is a little bit of common sense—deep, deep within that part of the coalition. I think the member for Dawson, like many people in the bush, like many people who believe in that national spirit, has probably watched in dismay over the last 30 years as coalition partners have walked away from supporting Australian industry. That walking away has taken three elements. The first is privatisation. The second is economic rationalism. And the third is unfettered free trade.

While we all acknowledge that free trade has been particularly beneficial to the agriculture industry and given us access to markets overseas that have really supercharged the agricultural industry, that completely ignores the effect that it's had on the manufacturing industry. Instead of actually providing some sort of support to industries which are effectively, when you have lower tariffs, competing against state owned industries overseas, then, really, that is not fair trade. While lower tariffs have been a spectacular thing for our local economy, they have been one of the reasons we've been able to keep inflation down for so long. It has been a great thing to be able to bring in cheaper imports. But it cannot come at the cost of manufacturing—when you let those imports come in, but you let your own domestic companies compete against effectively foreign owned state companies.

We have seen, with the privatisation of essential services like communications—for instance, Telstra being privatised—it has hit the bush particularly hard. We've also seen a lack of public housing. It must be remembered that part of our postwar economic miracle was very much an investment in public housing and an investment in public energy, something which was done by both coalition and Labor governments, the idea being that if you can keep the cost of living down by providing affordable housing, you're able to keep wages down. The best example of that was Elizabeth in South Australia, where you had a car industry effectively built around public housing, which was provided to keep that cost of living down, which kept the pressure off wages, which ultimately provided a high standard of living and was able to support Australian industry.

Unfortunately, instead of pursuing that approach, we saw the coalition, as they took part in this significant transformation over the past few decades, walking away from that basic support—walking away from providing essential government support directly to keep those industries going but also from providing those sort of ancillary services, like cheaper energy and cheaper housing. So it is with some recognition of that irony that I rise to oppose this motion today.

Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Our nation was built on industry: makers, doers, builders and manufacturers. South Australia was the manufacturing capital of this nation. Melbourne was textiles, Sydney was finance and South Australia was the manufacturing heart of this country. Today it remains our sixth largest industry, producing $137 billion of value added output, employing 390,000 people, from big businesses like the smelter in Port Pirie and the steelworks in Whyalla to family operations like Sharman's in Long Plains. We in regional South Australia produce high-value goods using cutting-edge processes. But, in 2026, most manufacturers are no longer with us, and those remaining are fighting to stay alive.

Under this Labor government, we are witnessing a complete disconnect between the Treasury benches and the daily reality facing our regional businesses. Labor has comprehensively lost touch, and Minister Bowen must put Australians first. After wasting $150 million to host a climate conference in another country, he's handing even more taxpayer money to foreign governments trying to make a buck out of green energy projects on our soil. Meanwhile, families and businesses are still waiting for the promise of a $275 reduction in their power bills. Minister, where is it?

When we talk about energy, people only think about the energy in their homes—their air conditioners and the lights in their rooms. Household electricity consumption is less than 10 per cent of this nation's energy consumption; the rest is industry and transport. When the price of energy goes up, everything goes up: the cost of producing a coke can, the cost of your protein in the supermarket or the cost of processing your recycling. If energy is cheap, we create a prosperous nation. In South Australia, we have the highest energy prices in the developed world.

If you want a prosperous and secure Australia, we must unleash our own energy resources to reduce these crippling costs. We need reliable and firm base-load power for our manufacturers to remain competitive. We'll put an end to green energy rent seeking. We will bring down power prices by backing all technologies that can deliver affordable and reliable energy. Labor put all their eggs into the wind and solar basket, and they're proving to be the most unreliable and expensive energy in the developed world. South Australia is the classic example.

You see, Labor governs for big unions and big city projects, leaving regional South Australian businesses out in the cold. Look no further than the impending payday super changes rolling out on 1 July. The government attempts to frame this as a simple administrative update. But for a smaller manufacturer in Port Lincoln or Moonta, it is a sudden, brutal drain on their cash flow. Super is absolutely critical, and all employees are entitled to it. That is not up for debate. But, under this new scheme, money will leave businesses much sooner, fundamentally altering their working capital, at a time when they are being battered with energy costs.

And what specific support measures has government offered to help cash-poor businesses adjust? Absolutely none. If you want to see this government's true priorities, look at the budget. They allocate a paltry amount to help small businesses navigating complex IR disputes, yet they happily hand out millions of dollars of taxpayer money to continue propping up union administration. The compliance burden of tax and reg law falls on small businesses with the same weight as on big businesses. They do not have large HR and legal teams.

The fight to save Australian manufacturing and reclaim our national sovereignty means we must challenge these sorts of policies that leave us vulnerable to foreign imports. Regional industries are not seeking a handout. They just want a level playing field. Without immediate policy intervention to address the energy disparity and the lack of import standards, we risk even more industrial decline. We must protect our domestic production at all costs. Australia needs a national import quality taskforce to stop foreign dumping. We should offer royalty discounts for companies that produce 100 per cent Australian made—Aussies backing Aussies. We must back our manufacturers now. We must secure our energy future. We must reclaim our sovereignty, and build a prosperous, secure nation for the future.

Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

A Future Made in Australia is an acknowledgement that we live in a constantly and rapidly changing global environment, with intense international competition, constant conflict and supply chains that are consistently being challenged. It's also an acknowledgement that Australia has competitive advantages in renewable energy and critical minerals, and that partnership with the private sector is critical if we are to insulate and grow our economy and create secure, well-paying jobs that advance the national interest.

A key pillar in the Albanese Labor government's Future Made in Australia is the National Reconstruction Fund. Worth $15 billion, the National Reconstruction Fund has announced 28 investments, totalling nearly $1.6 billion, to date—investing in businesses in priority industries that lift manufacturing, value-add and enhance local capability. South Australia was home to one of the first major National Reconstruction Fund investments, with a $25 million investment being made in Myriota, a satellite telecommunications company. This National Reconstruction Fund investment is being used to scale the company's Australian based manufacturing of advanced satellite communications models and hardware for global export. Myriota's technology is growing Australia's capability in the telecommunications and space sectors, while enhancing productivity and efficiencies in partnering sectors such as agriculture, mining and defence.

Staying with defence capability and enabling capabilities—two of the seven priority areas for National Reconstruction Fund investment—Gilmour Space Technologies has also received a $75 million investment, which the company will use to further develop its Eris orbital rocket technology, scale its satellite and rocket manufacturing and expand its spaceport. Another example is the $50 million investment in Advanced Navigation's headquarters, core R&D and high-end precision manufacturing capabilities in Australia. This investment is creating almost 200 new, high-skilled roles in deep-tech engineering, photonics, robotics, high-tech manufacturing, operations and technical sales, and keeping manufacturing jobs here in Australia where they are needed.

This motion also talks about energy, and we are pursuing a prompt but balanced transition to renewable energy. For some, the transition is too slow; for others, too fast; and for others yet again, the transition should be scrapped. But why would you scrap a balanced approach that recognises that the path to decarbonisation and clean energy, whilst urgent, will take time and requires an acknowledgement that some Australian manufacturers do still rely on gas? The government's intervention in the gas market to deliver a gas reservation agreement from next year is a part of this. Yes, we want to phase out fossil fuels, but we can't do that 100 per cent just yet. What we can do in the meantime is continue the agenda at the same time as ensuring Australians are shielded from global energy shocks by having access to adequate quantities of our own gas.

Finally, there's research and development. A Future Made in Australia relies on targeted, meaningful and sufficient investment in research and development, which is why, in the recent federal budget, the government announced it would reform the research and development tax incentive to better incentivise business R&D spending in Australia, primarily by replacing the offset on supporting R&D activities with a higher offset rate on core activities, by refocusing the refundable offset on high-potential firms in need of cash flow support, and by encouraging large-scale R&D firms to undertake their R&D in Australia by increasing the maximum expenditure threshold to $200 million. Collaborative efforts between academia, industry and government agencies are crucial for pushing the boundaries of R&D. This is essential because R&D is the catalyst for innovation. Investing in research means that new ideas can be explored and novel concepts can be worked on before they are introduced to the market. Well-funded and targeted R&D can lead to improvements in a range of things, including economic growth, and it must remain a central pillar of A Future Made in Australia.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting