John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to the minister for science for her words and her commitment to science and innovation in this country. Science has always been the bedrock of progress. We are where we are today, largely because of the innovations and developments of various scientists around the world who have studied to understand our world or developed technologies to make the world better. But, as we look around us at the pandemic which is ravaging our lives, our desire for a scientific breakthrough is as great as ever before. We know that we cannot get back to life as it was without a vaccine and we know that when this vaccine comes it will be delivered by members of the global scientific community who have been working together to bring this to us in record time.

Bennelong is famously Australia's capital of innovation, and so it is fitting to see that the first vaccine produced in this country, the Oxford vaccine, has been designed by a company based in Bennelong, AstraZeneca. I was delighted to be joined by the Prime Minister a few months ago at the announcement that we are investing in this drug and, like all Australians, I can't wait to see it being administered across this country.

Australia hasn't put all our eggs in one basket though. We've also signed agreements with Novavax and Pfizer to get their vaccines to Australians, should they prove successful. The Pfizer vaccine is particularly exciting. It is a mRNA vaccine, which is a radically new approach to the way that vaccines are developed. Rather than the old approach, which inserts an inert virus into the body to strengthen the immune system, the mRNA vaccine gives instructions to the body to make proteins specific to the virus, which the immune system then recognises and produces a response to, to teach immune cells directly. As a recent emigrant from Bennelong, we're still happy to claim Pfizer's innovations as our own! While these companies, along with the University of Queensland—and I can't find a link there with Bennelong, no matter how hard I try!—have reached agreement with the Australian government, they are not alone in the search for a vaccine. There are many pharmaceutical companies in Bennelong, and they all have skin in the game in the search for a vaccine. We don't know who will get there first, but we know that it will come soon and that it will be a scientific response to this horrific virus that nature has thrown at us.

We clearly have the genius and the drive to develop these vaccines here. One thing we're lacking, though, is the manufacturing capabilities to make them here as well. While CSL has once again been a life saver and agreed to manufacture many of these vaccines, it is sad that we have to rely on this one company. Wouldn't it be great if each of these companies could go to the next step and employ Australians while they make the vaccines here too? That's why it's great to see that the government has committed $1.5 billion in the Modern Manufacturing Strategy. This strategy will create a manufacturing sector for a modern Australian economy by helping our businesses grow, become more resilient and boost their competitiveness on the global stage. This strategy recognises that we must play to our strengths. We must target sectors that allow us to generate full growth by focusing where we have a comparative advantage, where we have the capacity to harness emerging opportunities or where we have a strategic interest. That's why we are focusing our efforts on the six new national manufacturing priorities, one of which includes medical products.

We know that the main reason we don't have more manufacturing here is the costs of doing business, which are some of the highest in the world. We must find other ways to bring costs down if we want to be competitive. One of the better ways of doing this is by examining our energy costs, which brings me to my question to Minister Taylor. More than 850,000 Australians are employed in manufacturing in the manufacturing sector, and we know how crucial affordable, reliable energy is for our manufacturing industries. Businesses across my electorate rely on affordable, reliable energy. I ask the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction to update us on how the budget delivers on the government's plan to ensure businesses and families in my electorate have access to the affordable, reliable and secure energy they need while at the same time reducing emissions. How does our plan deliver these outcomes while also protecting our economy, jobs and investment?

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