Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise in support of the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2022, which will be driving transformation of Australian industry. Now, we know that driving that transformation of Australian industry is vital to reviving our ability as a nation to make and manufacture world-class products once again, and in South Australia, my home state, we understand this very well. We were a good manufacturing state. We had car plants where we could manufacture a motor vehicle from design—in other words, designing it on a piece of paper—right through to the showroom selling that actual vehicle. We were one of only 13 places in the world, 13 countries, that had those skills.

What we saw from the then government, those on the opposite side today, who had nine ministers in this area in nine years, was that it left Australia's manufacturing in tatters. And what a line-up it was! There was Macfarlane, Pyne, Sinodinos, Cash, Andrews, Porter, Taylor and, of course, Mr Morrison as well. They stood right here in this place and goaded General Motors-Holden out of Australia. Who could forget that speech by Joe Hockey, the then Treasurer, goading General Motors-Holden out of Australia! They just had absolutely no regard for those workers who were working in these manufacturing jobs in South Australia, where the loss of Holden cost us 30,000 manufacturing jobs. There were approximately 1,500 workers at GMH and another 30-odd thousand people working in smaller companies that manufactured products for General Motors-Holden.

The National Reconstruction Fund's investment decisions will be those of an independent body. For too long, while those opposite were in government, decisions were made in the interests of coalition held seats and of their mates, not in the interests of Australia. You will not see a single colour coded spreadsheet when this is up and running in Australia. And the irony is that the coalition is talking about inappropriate ministerial direction in regard to this thing; it is just bizarre to me. You would think that they would be supporting manufacturing. You would think that they would be supporting jobs—jobs in their areas, in regional areas, in rural areas, in outer suburbs, in cities—because that's what this bill is designed to do.

We know that for too long, when those opposite were in government, decisions were made not in the interests of Australia but in the interests of the coalition and their mates. Our focus is on renewing, revitalising and rebuilding Australia's manufacturing industry for all Australians: for small-business owners, for the regions, for jobs, for innovative technologies, for the people of Australia and their future. The opposition have a choice: to either vote for and support this bill and help create jobs and make this nation a manufacturing nation once again, or to not support jobs. That's the choice they have when this comes up for a vote later on today.

During the pandemic, we experienced firsthand the potential dangers of being a country that doesn't make things locally. All of us would have witnessed it in our electorates, when there were shortages of things on supermarkets shelves and products that we needed to manufacture. The demand on supply chains was huge. As I said, who could forget the empty supermarket shelves, the months waiting for deliveries and the shortage of construction materials, which is still felt today?

We have an abundance of natural resources, but we need to expand how we value-add to these products. For decades, we've mined our resources and shipped them overseas to other countries to process them and add value to them. We then import them back at many times the price we originally sold them for. This sends any potential manufacturing industry profits and thousands of jobs overseas. That's what we've done over the last 10 years. This is what we've seen. We need to keep businesses here. We need to value-add to products.

Australian know-how and our scientists and innovators are amongst the best in the world. As I said before, we were one of the only nations that could actually design a car and from that point go right through the process to actually producing it, adding to it and then selling it in the showroom. We were one of only 13 nations. So we have a proven track record. Another example is that we invented photovoltaic technology. Solar cells were invented here. But today, as we heard the member for Newcastle say, 87 per cent of the world's cells are made in one country. And in the next three years that number is expected to rise to 94 per cent. We need to change that, make more of those here and see more of that product being exported. We need to keep our people working in local industries, and we want Australians living overseas to come back home with their special technology. Of course, many young people leave Australia seeking support and funding for their ideas.

Those opposite like to talk about manufacturing, but the reality is that the manufacturing sector has been neglected for years under the former coalition government. Those opposite had, as I said, nine ministers. That is why this National Reconstruction Fund will be a total game changer, and that's why those opposite must support it. It sets aside $15 billion as a key platform to support, diversify and transform Australia's industry and create sustainable, well-paying jobs.

As a South Australian, in the history of South Australia we had two major motor vehicle producers. We had Mitsubishi, formerly Chrysler, and General Motors-Holden's. They produced vehicles and provided well-paid and secure jobs for thousands and thousands of people in South Australia. One of them was my father, who worked at General Motors-Holden's.

We're focusing this fund to drive investment in a number of priority areas. As I said, these areas include value-adding in: resources; the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector; transport capabilities in transport manufacturing and supply chains, including for cars, trains and shipbuilding; and medical science, to take advantage of our world-leading research—we know we have world-leading research—to ensure we always have essential supplies such as medical devices, personal protective equipment, medicines and vaccines. The pandemic certainly taught us the importance of this.

Then I come to the priority area of renewables and low-emission technologies. This is an area that has been underinvested in in this country. Why is that? Because there was no certainty. We had a government—those sitting opposite now—that for nine years had so many different policies on climate change, on renewables and on low-emission technologies. No-one in their right mind would invest when there's no certainty. That's what we want to give investors. We want to give them certainty so we can become world leaders in renewable technologies, such as making components for wind turbines, batteries, solar panels and innovative packaging solutions to reduce waste—just to name a few things. There are many more.

The NRFC will also support our National Battery Strategy. It will send a very strong message to investors about our Australia's industry and battery supply chain capabilities. We know we're one of the world's places where lithium is mined and we want to value-add to that. That's what's required in batteries for electric vehicles. These are some of the areas that've got great potential for Australia. The other one is defence capability, so we can employ Australian workers, whether they be in technology, infrastructure or skills in another area that is very important to South Australia.

As I said, with those opposite for too long we were a government that made no decisions in this area. It was an area that was neglected and an area that shouldn't have been neglected. This government, this Albanese Labor government, is going to turn that around with this particular bill that will help manufacturing; will help innovative technologies; will invest in real jobs, secure jobs and jobs that pay well.

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