Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Perhaps you were aware of this matter when you were sitting around another table. The Morrison government has had more than a year to invest in new manufacturing capability and they haven't, once again leaving Australia missing out on new jobs and manufacturing opportunities. Government experts have since confirmed that the Prime Minister has never had a plan to create manufacturing jobs, just plans to create headlines. The secretary of the department confirmed at the 2021-22 budget estimates that the $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy has not created a single job—not a single job!—saying that this fact is crystal clear and an inevitable outcome of the funding profile that no new jobs in manufacturing have been created under the strategy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we need to be a country that makes things, but this government has squandered this opportunity and has left companies that have supported the national effort in the lurch. There is one example which is particularly telling: an Australian company that supported our domestic production of medical masks at a time of greatest need, Med-Con. When the pandemic hit at the start of last year, as borders were closing and the immediate imports of some critical medical equipment were frozen, Australian health services needed masks immediately and Med-Con was the only surgical mask manufacturer in the country. It's a small, family owned business based in Shepparton in Victoria and it was critical to supplying our frontline health services.

The government begged Med-Con to boost its supply and they did their bit—as all Australians have done throughout the pandemic. But they have been let down by this Prime Minister and left in the lurch. In April 2020 the Prime Minister, on his Facebook page, spoke of supporting Med-Con. He spoke at great length about this. But if we fast forward to 21 July of this year, this is what the CEO of Med-Con, Steven Csiszar, said to the ABC:

All the people we've supported throughout the pandemic seem to have left us.

The cameras move on and so does this Prime Minister, which is just so revealing of his behaviour at every turn. He is all about the photo op and never there for the follow-through. Whether it's bushfires or the pandemic, he cannot move himself beyond base politics and beyond engaging with daily political tactics. He has proven himself incapable of governing for all Australians or for the national interest.

Australians know that the Prime Minister had two jobs this year: speedy, effective rollout of the vaccine and putting in place dedicated national quarantine arrangements. He has failed at both to the cost of all us. The economy is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars every day and billions a week because he hasn't done these two jobs. Australians can't afford another three years of this kind of leadership.

Labor supports the provisions that are contained in the bill, which are of themselves uncontentious, but we must be on guard with what is happening with our broader policy settings. We can't afford to be caught off guard like this again. The pandemic has underlined how exposed we are to disruptions in global supply chains. The pandemic has taught us we need to be a country that makes things, and a state-of-the-art sovereign vaccine capability must be top of this list. Under Labor, Australia and Australians won't be left behind as we have been under this government. Labour has a plan for reconstruction that will rebuild our manufacturing base, create good jobs and safeguard our health and prosperity. It's all about creating the advanced manufacturing industries that will power good jobs and a stronger economy and provide ongoing sovereign capability for decades to come.

The Prime Minister is not on the side of Australian manufacturing and he does not believe in a future made in Australia—and, even if he did, he does not have the character, vision or competence to see it through.

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