Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Support for Commonwealth Entities) Bill 2016. As secretary of the Australian Jobs Taskforce I get to hear stories all around the country of people in our community that are looking for work. Those who were highly skilled and employed to work in mines, for example, are now out of work with the downturn. When we hear those stories we want to do everything we can to make sure that we have a policy setting in this country that can put those people into work. I hope that those sentiments will be supported by everyone in this place.

Assistance to Australian businesses and manufacturers to become exporters and explore overseas opportunities is always welcome. In my electorate I have a number of local manufacturers who already export overseas, and I am sure they would support access to a facility to create further opportunities for overseas markets. I would hate to think there would be legislation that could allow a competitor to set up in an overseas market that would have a direct impact on a local industry and, of course, local jobs. Labor supports the principles of this legislation, but as my colleague the member for Bruce and other speakers outlined, we do have some concerns, which is why we will be moving amendments to protect Australian jobs

Efic has a test of no net job losses. That should not be a minimum; there should be a high standard of net job growth in this country. That is what we should be aiming to achieve. Like many other places in Australia, Tasmania and my electorate have seen Australian manufacturing jobs go overseas, and that has huge implications for our community. Blundstone, for example, moved their operations off shore from Hobart, and 300 jobs were lost. More recently, in my electorate, Caterpillar moved the vast majority of their Burnie-based manufacturing jobs offshore, and 280 jobs were lost from a regional community. It has devastating implications. Community, government and the AMWU worked really hard to try to offset some of the damage, and they should be congratulated for their efforts there because we have become a very resilient community because of that.

The last thing my state and electorate would need is a system whereby a company could access Commonwealth finance to set up overseas and replace an existing local operation. It has been a fear up to this point that that could potentially happen in the coal industry. The principal focus of taxpayer money on this issue should be to support local jobs, not to run the risk of jobs simply being exported. I do not think anyone in this place would like to see that happen. Any potential for the offshoring of Australian jobs must be prevented, which is why Labor will be moving amendments.

I have spoken before about my local manufacturers in this place and how they have been resilient and bouncing back. Only yesterday the Australia Institute Centre for Future Work released a briefing paper titled Manufacturing: A moment of opportunity. The paper was released at the National Manufacturing Summit held in this place only this week. The summit brought together business, unions, universities, the financial sector and numerous other key stakeholders. Its purpose was to identify policies that could assist an Australian manufacturing industry turnaround. The paper makes the point that while the focus on Australian manufacturing tends to be on job losses, factory closures and redundancies, the sector is recovering. The paper highlights that a number of indicators suggest economic opportunities for Australian manufacturing have improved.

Manufacturing employment has increased over the last 12 months. The growth in manufacturing was the second-largest increase in jobs recorded over the period of any sector in the Australian economy—surpassed only by public administration and safety. And governments should not be patting themselves on the back for this job growth as it is coming off a very low base. The growth is being led by industries in my electorate such as Elphinstone and Direct Edge, not the government.

The average output of each worker in the manufacturing industry is also increasing, and the report stated output to hours worked in manufacturing is returning to its peak achieved under the former Labor government. That is interesting in itself, because manufacturing productivity in Australia was at its highest over the last 10 years under a Labor government and on the back of a global financial crisis. It just goes to show what can actually happen when government and the manufacturing unions, like the AMWU, work together. Perhaps that is a lesson the coalition could learn.

Labor has always been a proud supporter of our manufacturing industry, which is why we will be moving the amendments to prevent offshoring of Australian jobs, and supporting industry to invest overseas to create export opportunities for Australians and Australian jobs is a principle Labor supports. But we are concerned changes in this bill will make it easier for a company to establish an overseas operation that will directly compete against an existing Australian operation. I would hope no-one in this place would want to see that happen.

Labor is prepared to work with the minister and Efic to ensure this legislation achieves exactly what it is meant to do, but we want to avoid any unintended consequences that could stymie potential growth and opportunities in Australian industries. I know my local manufacturers, the manufacturing industry and unions, especially the AMWU, would welcome additional opportunities that this legislation could ultimately bring.

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