Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the National Reconstruction Fund Bill 2022, is all about making things in Australia again, growing jobs, reducing the cost-of-living pressures facing many Australians and giving all Australians a sense of pride in our nation. People across Greater Geelong and in my electorate of Corangamite understand all too well the importance of revitalising manufacturing and the jobs that accompany it after years of neglect under the coalition government. The Geelong Ford factory produced its last Australian-made straight-six and V8 engines in September 2016. Assembly at Broadmeadows, in Melbourne, ended a month later. About 600 workers lost their jobs at Ford, but many more lost their jobs in the smaller manufacturing businesses which supplied components and services to Ford.

The exit of three carmakers—Ford, Holden and Toyota—from 2013 to 2017, under the coalition government, wiped out jobs on a scale rarely seen before. Those opposite in the coalition had an astounding nine industry ministers over those nine years. Their dysfunction in government left Australia's manufacturing industry in tatters. Coalition ministers stood right here in this place and baited the Australian car industry into leaving the country. Not surprisingly, that's exactly what the car companies did. Australia has suffered nearly a decade of policy drift under the coalition. Australia ranks dead last in the OECD when it comes to manufacturing self-sufficiency. It's a sorry record of manufacturing and job loss from the former coalition government.

In stark contrast, the Albanese government has a plan to drive the transformation of the Australian industry and the jobs that go with it. In a plan to revive the nation's ability and capability to make world-class products right here in Australia, manufacturing matters because it creates full-time, meaningful work and secure jobs, both directly and indirectly. This bill to establish the National Reconstruction Fund is the first step in that plan to rebuild Australia's industrial base.

The $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund will provide a crucial financing vehicle to drive investment in projects that will build prosperity across our country. It will provide loans, guarantees and equity to support projects that create secure, well-paid jobs, drive regional development and innovation, invest in our national sovereign capability and diversify Australia's economy. Through the National Reconstruction Fund we will partner with businesses to unlock further private investment of more than $30 billion. This investment will play to our strengths, supporting new and emerging industries, transitioning existing industries to net zero emissions and making it easier to commercialise innovation and technology—something that we have struggled to do in the past. The fund will not support grants; they would erode the fund's capital over time and undermine its ability to deliver returns. It's intended to be a commercial entity, generating a positive rate of return over time. Returns on investments will be available for future investments, ensuring the fund can continue to provide targeted finance.

This bill establishes the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation as a new Commonwealth entity. This fund is modelled on Labor's successful Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The corporation will be governed by an independent board making independent investment decisions. It will have a chief executive and staff and it will publish investment reports quarterly. It will also provide detailed financial and operational information in its annual reports to parliament. As a co-investment fund, it will seek to draw in investment support with superannuation, venture capital and private equity sources to help create high-quality, sustainable industries and, importantly, jobs.

Pleasingly for those of us from regional Australia, there will be targeted investment to support manufacturing capability in our regions. In Corangamite, in my region, there is much capability to build on. It will make sure regions benefit from sustainable economic growth. As I've said, in my electorate, there have been excellent past examples of targeted joint investment supporting research and manufacturing. There are institutions like Deakin University's Waurn Ponds campus, within my electorate, working in research and pilot manufacturing. ManuFutures is one such example. It is an advanced manufacturing hub in the heart of Deakin's future economy precinct. The university has chalked up impressive innovation successes leading to commercialisation and many hundreds of jobs in a number of areas, including advanced fibres and textiles, carbon fibre and composites, advanced alloys and electro and energy materials. Another example is Carbon Revolution. It began as a small start-up with a great idea creating lightweight, ultra strong carbon fibre and using it to build high-performance wheels in the premium or top end of the market with companies such as Ferrari, Renault, General Motors and Ford. They also supply components for the aeronautical industry. Elsewhere around the Geelong region, I'm seeing excellent examples of manufacturing innovation in the private sector. I give a shout-out to the Geelong Manufacturing Council for its work in supporting local manufacturers and start-ups. There are countless opportunities in many fields of endeavour waiting to be tapped into and supported to flourish across this nation.

Importantly, the Geelong council is already encouraging its members to look at the possibilities that the National Reconstruction Fund will provide. The council understands the opportunities for innovation and commercialisation in manufacturing. The fund will open these opportunities to it. The fund also has potential to undertake innovative work like that in Deakin, in the Geelong manufacturing community and elsewhere across the nation to a whole new level.

As with other Commonwealth special investment vehicles, the responsible ministers will issue investment mandates to the fund's council. While the government will set its mandate to drive investment in key sectors to make the most of Australia's natural and competitive strengths, the fund's board will always operate independently. The investment mandate will guide the board on a range of matters, including the government's performance expectations about rate of return, governance and risk management. The government will consult extensively with industry, state and territory governments, and community stakeholders to design the investment mandate. The board will then make investment decisions and manage its investment portfolio to achieve both the fund's objectives and a positive rate of return to ensure the fund's sustainability.

The bill specifically prevents ministers from directing the board to make a particular investment. This model will ensure there will be no politically charged whiteboards or coloured spreadsheets highlighting marginal electorates when funding is being allocated by the board. The legislation requires that, to be eligible for appointment to the board, members must have substantial experience and professional credibility in at least one of the fields listed in the bill. The bill also provides for the board to establish committees made up of both board members and external experts to provide expertise to support the board's decision-making. This will help ensure sound investment decisions are made across priority areas.

Crucially, co-investment plans will be developed collaboratively with industry. These will outline investment opportunities in priority areas and actions for government and industry to build Australia's industrial capabilities, and this is so important. The plans are expected to be released by the end of the year. It will invest across seven priority areas of our economy. Value adding in resources will help expand Australia's mining, science and technology sectors, ensuring that a greater share of raw materials extracted are processed domestically. For example, high-purity alumina from red mud in bauxite processing, or lithium processing for batteries. Value adding in agriculture, forestry and the fisheries sectors will unlock potential in areas like food processing, textiles, clothing and footwear manufacturing. In transport, it will help develop capabilities in transport manufacturing and supply chains, including for cars, trains and shipbuilding. In medical science, it will leverage Australia's world-leading research to provide essential supplies such as medical devices, personal protective equipment, medicines and vaccines, so important, as we know, after the COVID pandemic we have faced.

In renewables and low-emission technologies, it will pursue commercial opportunities, including components for wind turbines, the production of batteries and solar panels, new livestock feed to reduce methane emissions, modernising steel and aluminium, hydrogen electrolysers and innovative packaging solutions to reduce waste. In defence capability, the plan will help maximise sourcing from Australian suppliers, employing Australian workers, whether it be in technology, infrastructure or skills. In enabling capabilities, the plan will support capabilities across engineering, data science and software development, including in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum.

Some people believe that government has no role to play other than establishing guard rails and letting business do its thing, only stepping in when there has been market failure. But the Albanese government does have a role to play in making real contributions to our most vital sectors.

Australia is rich in valuable, critical resources—resources we can rightly expect to use to build our manufacturing base, add value and, importantly, create jobs here in Australia. But for decades we've mined those resources and shipped them overseas to other countries to process and add value, and then we've imported them back at many, many times the price. We've been effectively sending overseas what should be our manufacturing industries, their profits and the thousands of jobs they create. If we mine it here, we should make it here too.

Australia's know-how, our science and our innovators are among the best in the world. Technology into solar cells was invented here. Yet today 87 per cent of the world's cells are made in another country, and in the next three years that number will be 94 per cent. It's not good enough, not when we're so well placed to make the most of our technology and our skills. Renewables and low-emission technologies will play a vital role in delivering Australia's emissions reduction target of 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. If we invent it here, we should make it here.

We have seen what happens when Australia fails to back itself and fails to back our innovative people. They go overseas and they take their experience, know-how and passion with them. We want Australians who are living overseas to come home. We recognise that many of them left Australia seeking support and funding for their ideas—support and funding that they just couldn't find at home. The Albanese government wants to empower the National Reconstruction Fund to invest in Australia and Australians. This bill and the investment mandate guiding investments will ensure that the $15 billion fund drives Australia's natural inclination towards innovation.

If we didn't already know it, the pandemic made it clear, through supply chain stresses, that Australia must be a country that supports local businesses and industries to make more things here. There is a great opportunity to support innovation in Australian industry after years of uncertainty and the lack of a plan. The Albanese government's focus is on renewing, revitalising and rebuilding Australia's manufacturing industry for small business owners and for regions like mine, including towns like Waurn Ponds, where Deakin University is. It is all about jobs as well.

The National Reconstruction Fund is about building a better future for all Australians. It deserves support from all in this parliament, and I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context