Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is a country that makes things. We have a long and proud history of manufacturing. We have always had a sense of pride when buying 'Australian made' because we are supporting Australian jobs. Over the last 20 years we have been losing that sense of pride, and that is because our manufacturing industry has been on the decline. Over the past 20 years, manufacturing employment has almost halved, slipping from 14.2 per cent of the workforce to just 8.2 per cent. In net terms, since 1994, employment in the sector has fallen from 1.1 million to approximately 950,000 workers, or a decline of around 15 per cent.

However, even during periods of decline, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the Australian manufacturing sector has continued to represent a core source of economic prosperity for Australia. It has outperformed many other sectors in terms of sector contribution to Australia's sustained economic performance and our capacity to generate quality jobs. In manufacturing, well over 80 per cent of the jobs are full time, the majority of which have the full suite of employee benefits, including paid leave. There has been a relatively low propensity to turn manufacturing jobs into less secure jobs through casualisation or the use of independent contractors. We all know that manufacturing jobs are good jobs, and for those very reasons. However, in recent years Australia has taken its eye off the ball regarding one of the greatest economic drivers and relied too heavily on the mining boom.

Manufacturing is a key pillar of economic growth in our country. We only need to look abroad to prove this very point. The world's best-performing economies tend to have innovative and sophisticated manufacturing sectors. The advanced economies that recovered very strongly from the global financial crisis—Germany, Sweden and Switzerland—also have the most competitive manufacturing sectors. The German government invests in research and applied science for the manufacturing industry through the government-funded Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and Switzerland beat China in manufacturing innovation on the Bloomberg Innovation Index. How was this done? It was done through government investment.

Australia is at a tipping point. We have high unemployment and stagnant wage growth. The mining boom has slowed and productivity is on the decline. The way out of sectoral stagnation, unemployment and environmental degradation is through productivity-enhancing investment in innovation and skills. For some reason the Turnbull government is reducing its contribution to this vital strategic objective.

Labor knows the investment and focus that is needed to get us back on track, and it is only Labor that will deliver a solid future for this nation. A Shorten Labor government will establish a new $1 billion Australian manufacturing future fund to drive innovation and help Australian manufacturers grow their businesses and create new jobs. Modelled on Labor's successful Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian manufacturing future fund will leverage finance— (Time expired)

See this speech in context