Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Senator Ayres. The Albanese Labor government is driving new investment in world-class industrial firms in regional Australia. The National Reconstruction Fund recently announced a $75 million investment in Alpha HPA, a high-purity alumina company in Gladstone, Queensland. Minister, why is high-purity alumina such a crucial part of our global tech supply chains? What will the funding mean for Alpha HPA? How many new jobs, in Gladstone in particular, will be generated by this investment?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank Senator Mulholland for her question about the National Reconstruction Fund's most recently announced project. Alpha HPA, in Central Queensland, is a fantastic development for Australia and a fantastic development for Gladstone and Central Queensland. High-purity alumina is a critical input in artificial intelligence data centre cooling systems, in semiconductors and in all sorts of pharmaceutical and battery supply chains around the world. And Gladstone, Queensland, will be the home of the world's largest high-purity alumina production facility because of the Albanese government's National Reconstruction Fund's investment in that facility, crowding in $225 million, which will open a factory that provides 420 construction jobs and then 120 permanent blue-collar, trades, production and engineering jobs, 80 of them in Gladstone in Central Queensland.

That is world-class manufacturing in a Central Queensland regional economy that the National Party in particular have left for dead. They have walked away from the key issues that will drive competitiveness and blue-collar jobs in regional areas. The local member, Mr Boyce—remember him?—has always opposed—

Well, he's doing a pretty good job of promoting himself. I watched his interview on Sky. We'll come back to him in a minute, I suppose.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I'm waiting for order. Senator Watt and Senator McKenzie, order! Senator Mulholland, first supplementary.

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is refreshing to see a government interested in delivering regional jobs, not just getting more jobs for the boys, in this place. That is why the Albanese government set up the National Reconstruction Fund: to drive industrial investment, deliver good blue-collar jobs and make the economy more resilient and productive. As the Alpha HPA investment in Gladstone shows, the government is delivering for regional Queensland. Why is it important for the government to back Australian industrial firms in the regions?

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, you may have moved down the chamber, but your interjections are just as loud. Some might think that's quite an achievement. I'm not one of them, and I'm asking you to lower your voice. Minister Ayres.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I suppose they'll get a question at some point this week, I guess. But the alternative views, the people standing in the way of the National Reconstruction Fund and the Future Made in Australia program—which is Australia's largest ever pro-manufacturing package—are poor old One Nation, Mr Boyce and his friends over here in the once-proud National Party, and the Liberal Party, who have opposed electricity development for industry in Australia, who have opposed the National Reconstruction Fund, delivering 520 jobs in this one announcement in regional Australia, and who have an utterly contemptible approach to industrial policy. You hear Senator McKenzie: 'He got a swing to him.' Well, what happened when he was in government? Industrial jobs flooded offshore—imported ideas, exported manufacturing jobs.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Mulholland, second supplementary.

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's been a wild old week in this place. Senator Ayres, why do investors need clear and coherent policy to have the confidence to back Australian industry? And what parts of the community are affected if policy is incoherent?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Mulholland, again, for the question. What the Liberals and Nationals have done is import weird, extremist foreign ideas and export Australian manufacturing jobs whenever they've had the chance. This government, by contrast, is providing a partnership with the private sector in the investment community, which is delivering good-quality blue-collar jobs, good-quality engineering and trades opportunities, and good opportunities for start-up Australian businesses that will rebuild the manufacturing sector that Senator Canavan and Senator McKenzie and all these characters over there have been utterly dedicated to destroying. We will work with industry to deliver the future electricity and future energy that is going to deliver manufacturing jobs for decades to come. That's what we're about.