Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with pleasure to speak in this debate on the motion moved by the member for Hotham. It is interesting that the previous speaker, the member for Cook, spoke about some data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Interestingly, in DFAT’s ‘Plain facts about Australia’s trade’, it says:

Trade gives Australians more consumer choice and spending power. If Australia hadn’t started opening its markets to trade in the late 1980s, we would now pay over 30 per cent more for a new car and some 18 per cent more for clothes and shoes.

That is a very good acknowledgement of the Labor Party policy in deregulating the markets in the 1990s—a policy which we are never given credit for in this place, but the government is obviously happy to take the benefits of it.

It is interesting to look at further DFAT information regarding the export market share in the years 2003, 2004 and 2005. For example, if we look at resources as an export market share in 2003, we see that it comprised 26 per cent and that manufactures comprised 25 per cent. In 2004, resources as an export market share comprised 26 per cent compared to 22 per cent for manufactures. If we look at Australian exports in 2005, the resources boom meant that the figure for resources was 33 per cent, while manufactures comprised 21 per cent. So in the space of two, three or four years, the manufacturing share has fallen by something like four per cent.

What is happening to manufacturing in this country? We are not the only ones talking about the state of manufacturing in this country. Let us look at the City of Greater Dandenong and some of the great enterprises that are based around it. The City of Greater Dandenong encompasses an area of about 130 square kilometres and it is home to more than 8,000 companies, producing a total output worth in excess of $9 billion. The local manufacturing region provides employment for 70,000 people of 140 different nationalities. This region produces 40 per cent of the total Victorian output of manufactured goods and is renowned as a centre for innovative manufacturing, with many companies possessing world-leading technology within their specialist fields. The region has more than 300 exporters, and hosts four of the top 10 Victorian exporters, all of whom are SMEs who predominantly export their total production into international markets. So we have companies of excellence in that region. Even with the river of prosperity that appears to be running through Dandenong, these people have grave concerns about the federal government and its export policy—or its lack of export policy.

Let us look at the organisation that helps to coordinate those particular export bodies. It is called the South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance, a City of Greater Dandenong alliance. Having talked to the chief executive officer about this alliance—an alliance that coordinates and deals with these companies and helps with access to overseas markets—you would think that he would give a glowing endorsement to the federal government. Tragically, that is not the case. In fact, let me tell the House what he thinks about the federal government. He says:

Like local industry, SEMMA membership, currently at 130 companies, continues to grow. Whilst we recognise ongoing challenges for local manufacturers we are optimistic that the sector will continue to prosper.

SEMMA strongly believes that at the centre of manufacturing sustainability is the need for manufacturers to work together and with government to strategically plan their future direction. As a consequence our organisation has been heavily involved in a wide range of initiatives addressing this issue.

However SEMMA is disappointed with the Federal Government’s lack of a national strategy for manufacturing, their non participation at key organised industry forums and their perceived indifference towards SME manufacturers in Melbourne’s south-east.

What a glowing reference! He continues:

I believe that Australia has the worst export performance of any OECD country with only 4% of Australian companies exporting compared to the next lowest country of Canada at 13%.

The issue of Australia’s poor manufacturing export performance centres around one issue being:-

“Australia’s continued inability to formalise a long term national export strategy that incorporates a model that can engage SME’s”.

In regards to SME’s Melbourne’s south east has in excess of 90% of companies in this category—many have innovative products—most do not export.

Why is this so? They say it is because of a lack of knowledge, that SMEs believe export is only for larger companies, because of a lack of real, practical support by the government, and the belief among SMEs that exporting is all too hard. SEMMA continues:

The current export infrastructure, namely Austrade, has been developed as a Government cost centre, focusing on overall—

(Time expired)

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