Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to the member for Paterson, who knows the importance of manufacturing to regional communities. I appreciate the question. We went through this seismic event with the pandemic, where we discovered that the things we needed most weren't there at a time we needed them. We realised we were dependent on a couple of countries for all these goods that get imported, and we recognised that our supply chains were completely dependent on them. We thought, at that point in time, that we, as a country, had learned that lesson and that we would commit to do better. Australians recognised that we have to be a country that makes things, that modern economies need strong manufacturing capability if they're going to keep going on into the long term and that manufacturing matters because it generates full-time, secure, well-paying jobs.

That is why, with all that in mind, the Albanese government have committed to one of the largest investments in Australian manufacturing capabilities in peacetime. The $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund will look at priority areas—value-added resources and value-added agriculture, low-emissions technology manufacture, transport, medical sciences and, importantly, critical technologies that will be important to give the economy edge longer term. It will be independently run with an investment mandate, looking at delivering a return to the taxpayer, building capability—and not a colour coded spreadsheet in sight! Politicians will not be making the call. The investment decisions will be made in the national interest, not in political interests.

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