Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the important contribution that the Australian food, beverage and grocery industry and its workers make to the Australian economy including:

(a) creating over 300,000 Australian jobs;

(b) contributing over $125 billion in turnover; and

(c) exporting over $30 billion of products; and

(2) encourages the Government to work with the Australian food, beverage and grocery industry to ensure its continued success.

This week is a tragic week for South Australians, with the closure of Holden this Friday. It's a situation we didn't have to face. It was thrust upon us by the Abbott-Turnbull Liberal government, who didn't appreciate the value of Australian manufacturing jobs. We now need to look to the future to find the jobs our nation needs. We need strong and stable national leadership on jobs, particularly manufacturing jobs. That's one of the reasons I tabled this motion.

The food, beverage and grocery industry is one of Australia's key employers and drivers of economic activity across both metropolitan and regional areas. The businesses and the workers of this industry make a critical contribution to the Australian economy. At the national level, the Australian Food and Grocery Council passionately represent their industry in this parliament. I thank them for their ongoing engagement with my office and look forward to seeing them at their corporate affairs committee breakfast this week. Today they released their ninth annual industry snapshot, State of the industry 2017, which covers two years, due to some reporting issues. In 2015-16, the industry's turnover was $127 billion, which was relatively flat, but the capital investment of $2.7 billion was an increase of 4.7 per cent, and direct employment was 320,302 people, which was an increase of 7,317 people. In 2016-17, the industry was made up of 30,748 businesses and the international trade totalled $68 billion, which was a decrease of 8.1 per cent. We have strong employment growth and increasing capital investment, which are encouraging signs for this industry, but we also have flat turnover and reducing exports, which show that we can't be complacent. There is a role for government in ensuring the ongoing strength of the industry.

Labor has always supported industries like the food industry. At the beginning of last year, Senator Carr and I held a food round table in South Australia with Food South Australia and a number of small food and beverage manufacturers. We listened to those industries—their concerns about operating with very thin margins, the inability to access finance for capital investment and high energy costs. Members of the Labor shadow ministry have been meeting with the industry all over Australia and hearing similar messages from manufacturers right across the country.

We've listened, and Labor in government will act. That's why, on the weekend, Bill Shorten came to the Labor Party conference in South Australia and announced a billion-dollar boost for advanced manufacturing jobs through an Australian manufacturing future fund. It's all about backing businesses that manufacture in Australia and create and support Australian jobs.

This fund will finance manufacturers to invest in job-creating plant and machinery that support productivity and efficiency. This is particularly important when we consider that, all through the period when we had the high dollar, there was an opportunity to investment in plant and machinery, and often companies could have availed themselves, through the currency rate, of that opportunity to purchase plant and machinery at a relatively cheaper cost than they would face now, with the currency depreciating. They could have emerged from what we had—a currency crisis—far more efficiently than they did, had such a facility been available. Small manufacturers often find it difficult to access finance through banks, and they will now be able to access finance through Labor's Australian manufacturing future fund. Make no mistake: that will create jobs all over the country.

The food, beverage and grocery industry is supporting jobs, over 300,000 of them. I congratulate that industry and I look forward to engaging with them in the future, developing well-thought-out policies and well-considered policies, and providing stable and consistent national leadership—a national leadership that the current government have been unable to provide because of their division and because of their rotating ministerial line-up. The future Shorten Labor government will provide consistency, stability, predictability and the Australian manufacturing future fund.

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