Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to strongly support the motion before the House, specifically in relation to (2) and (3), which say that this House:

expresses concern at the level of goods and services that are being sourced from overseas by the Government ...

and:

calls on the Government to apply a comprehensive value for money test which includes all national benefits which accrue when goods and services are procured locally.

I am also one of the regional MPs who knows how important it is that government procurement focuses on local goods and services. We have had a number of people speak about defence manufacturing. I would not be forgiven by my electorate if I did not put on the record in this debate how important it is that defence manufacturing dollars stay in this country. In Bendigo we currently produce the Bushmaster. That work is coming to an end and we are waiting on this government to sign the next contract that we hope to manufacture there: the Hawkei contract. Like the Bushmaster, the Hawkei contract will secure not only the defence manufacturing jobs at that facility, Thales, but also the supply chain. There are 120 small to medium businesses in Victoria, predominantly in regional Victoria, that will feed into the supply chain of the Hawkei. These are government dollars that the government is sitting on and not committing to.

Let's focus on what the government has announced in defence manufacturing and procurement in the last couple of weeks. They have made commitments towards projects that are almost a decade down the track. The funding for these projects for the big spend of defence procurement, which is the bulk production, is not even in the forward estimates yet. So we will probably have another election before we even get to the actual build of these projects. For example, the government is talking about LAND 400, which is at best estimates a decade away from being able to go into full production. Meanwhile, we are waiting for the government to make a commitment to Hawkei, to secure those jobs in regional Victoria and in my electorate. There is another area that I want to see the government commit to. If they want to be the government for infrastructure, then they should take a leaf out of the Victorian Labor government's book, do what they are doing and secure within those infrastructure contracts a commitment to local procurement of goods. Let's see a commitment to Australian steel, let's see a commitment to Australian concrete and let's see a commitment to Australian products being used in our big infrastructure builds. We can do that because we are the client. What people in Australia want to see is this government commit to spending Australian taxpayers' money in creating Australian jobs and supporting Australian industry.

Another area of concern, particularly in regional Victoria and particularly in my electorate, is the jobs—the jobs that we can lock in by supporting local industry and local business through good, smart spending of Australian dollars through strong procurement policy. I am concerned about what the free trade agreements—the China free trade agreement—could mean to our defence manufacturing dollars and our procurement manufacturing dollars. It concerns me that a Chinese-based state enterprise could bid for an Australian infrastructure project—that is big Australian dollars—and bring in the entire workforce, through the proposed China free trade agreement, to do that work. This is not scaremongering. This is the reality. Australians do not want to see that happen. If we are building a freeway, if we are building a port or if we are building rail infrastructure, we want to see the jobs associated with that project go to Australians first. That is the kind of smart procurement policy which is about the nation test and what is in the best interests of the nation.

In the few moments I have left, I would like to talk about services. The government is also one of the biggest purchasers of services in this country. I am talking about cleaning and security services, not just here in Parliament House but throughout the Australian government. This government has already demonstrated that it has little regard for people working in those industries by scrapping the Clean Start guidelines and by lowering the wages and conditions of hundreds of people working and cleaning its buildings. If this government were serious about procurement and securing jobs, it would be investing more and not outsourcing. It would not be outsourcing as we are seeing currently.

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