Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Throsby for those important questions. As I indicated earlier, the government announced in February a $1 billion plan for Australian jobs, and included within that are many of the measures which the member for Throsby is inquiring about. The first important part of the plan involves the establishment of Australian industry participation obligations on major project proponents—major projects being those worth more than $500 million—regardless of what part of the economy they may be in. Many people immediately think of the resources sector, which of course is a case, but it may in fact be a wind farm or a new power station. What is new in particular is that we formulated to implement that policy, the Australian Jobs Bill, and it is currently before the Senate, having passed the House. That will place for the first time a legal obligation on the proponents of these major projects to prepare Australian industry participation plans in consultation with a new statutory agency, the Australian Industry Participation Authority.

The project proponents must, under the legislation and under the eye of the authority, provide fair and reasonable opportunity to Australian businesses to successfully tender in for the goods and services during the construction phase and the early operational phases of these projects. That is new. An AIP plan previously only obtained in relation to certain government procurements worth more than $20 million and in relation to tariff concessions made under the Enhanced Project By-law Scheme. This will now apply to all projects worth more than $500 million.

In consultation with manufacturers, whom we expect to benefit significantly from this legislation and this policy approach, they have raised many issues concerning the specifications, the timing, the lack of information, the lack of transparency and the lack of accountability that many project proponents have taken in their approach to date. For example, it is argued by the manufacturing sector that, with some of the major projects in Australia, the large international corporations come along and bring their global supply chain with them, because they know that supply chain works to particular quality standards, they are familiar with their supply chain and they simply engage in the contract to do the work through their contractors. We have to create the transparency and the accountability to ensure that manufacturers and SMEs have the opportunity to successfully tender in. The detail in the Australian Jobs Bill will ensure that that is the case, and I have indicated to industry that if they see any concern for the way in which it is working they must raise it with the government and we will act upon it. Any fair and reasonable concern will be dealt with.

In relation to other measures that the government has put in place that the member inquired about, antidumping is also extremely important. Measures are before the House at the moment, a further tranche of reforms to the antidumping arrangements and the resourcing for Customs to properly pursue antidumping applications. These are important reforms which are critical to the viability of many areas of manufacturing in our country. We put those proposals together—myself and the Minister for Home Affairs—after quite extensive consultation with the business community, and especially the manufacturing sector and the Australian Industry Group, being the peak body. Those antidumping provisions will provide better access to remedies for dumped products. They will provide fast access and much more transparency and ability on the part of Customs to be able to deal with antidumping arrangements. Without any doubt, there has been in a number of markets a development of a glut of products on global markets, and many businesses have raised these issues with the government in the context of dumping. We want to deal with that issue and we want to get the legislation through as expeditiously as possible.

The member also asked me—and I can return to it in due course—about the steel plan, which is important for his region in the Illawarra in the south coast of New South Wales. The government has put $300 million into supporting the transformation of the steel sector, and it is to support steelworkers' jobs. Labor has done that. The coalition opposed to that particular piece of legislation. The government remains committed to it, and we will fight to ensure that we support steelworkers' jobs.

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