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

Thanks. I also want to thank—

Ask me a question. I want to thank the member for Spence for that question. The member for Spence has the great place of Elizabeth in his electorate, which had a great heritage. A lot of auto workers were employed there, who were very proud to make Australian-made cars. So I'm very grateful for that. And we know, like the Australian public knows, that manufacturing matters. It creates great, secure, well-paid, full-time employment for Australians.

As much as it's an economic imperative for this country to manufacture more, as we learnt in the pandemic, it's also important from a geopolitical point of view, because we've had so much of our production dependent on just one country, and the impact on supply chains has been huge. So we need, particularly in the key priority areas of the National Reconstruction Fund, to revitalise manufacturing, and this has been a big part of what we are trying to do across a range of areas to make sure that we change what we were left with by those opposite. We are the lowest producers of manufactured goods consumed in the OECD. So it's a big priority.

The NRF bill that we put forward has been in the chamber since December. We have offered in-depth briefings to coalition on that, yet the opposition can't help other than to oppose. It's always about opposition. And every time, on the big issues that involve Australian industry in this country, they are never there.

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