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

I'm just making this point: there's this thing, constitutionally, which prevents us from providing mandated amounts in that way. It's not that we don't want to do it; we very much do, and I'm flagging to you my commitment to do so. You made some points, as did the member for Mackellar, about board representation. I'll let you know that I want the board to be diverse. I don't want it to be the same old, same old people who end up on the board, I want one that reflects the community. This is the 'National' Reconstruction Fund, as I said, and I want a wide range of people with a wide range of skills involved on that board. I apologise to the member for Mackellar that I didn't respond in detail to her points, but I get where she's coming from. We're working on the way in which we do the board selection process; the Minister for Finance and Minister for the Public Sector is leading that work. But I can assure you that how we select the board is something which is very high in my thinking—in particular, to make sure that regional Australia gets a look in.

There are 900,000 workers who owe their livelihoods to manufacturing and 90,000 businesses, with one-third of those outside the capital regions. Your state, member for Kennedy, has the best record in the number of regional manufacturers that exist. In actual fact we should get the rest of the country to replicate what you're doing, and I'm very keen to see if we can make that a reality. Unfortunately, we cannot support your amendment, but I completely understand where you're coming from. (Time expired)

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