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

by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Friends, this is a good day for Australian manufacturing. If you want Australia to be a country that makes things, this is a good day. If you are a manufacturer in regional or outer-suburban areas of our country who is looking for that growth capital to make sure that your firm is secure and grows, this is a good day. And this is a good day for jobs. This is a good day for people working across a range of different sectors who believe in the value of their work and want a government that believes in the value of their work.

We are championing Australian manufacturing because it's not just about making things here in this country. Australian manufacturing makes good jobs and good secure work. Nearly 900,000 people in this nation owe their livelihood to manufacturing, and 85 per cent of those jobs are full time, good-paying jobs. This is something that is absolutely worth fighting for. We had people on this side of the chamber fight for that. We had people on the crossbench and the Greens fight for that. We may not have agreed with everything, but in the end we had the bulk of this chamber say, 'Australian manufacturing is worth backing.' The ones who didn't are sitting opposite.

The ones who want to pretend that they back manufacturing are sitting opposite. The ones who chased off auto manufacturers from this country are sitting opposite. Many of the ones who pulled apart manufacturing programs when they were in government are sitting opposite, and many of the ones who scrambled to put manufacturing funding back in are sitting opposite. And then, when we called on them to support us to help Australian manufacturers, who are dealing with soaring energy prices, and we said, 'Join with us to help Australian manufacturers', they weren't there. And when we asked them to back in one of the greatest investments in manufacturing capability in living memory, they weren't there.

When those opposite were in government and said they wanted to bring in funds for manufacturing grants to help support Australian manufacturing and they put $1.5 billion on the table, what did we do? We didn't do what they did. We agreed with it; we supported it. They say they're the party of the working class but, every time they need to be there, they're not. They refuse to back our ideas. We said, 'We don't agree necessarily with everything you're doing', when we were in opposition, but we backed manufacturing because manufacturing matters. That's the test.

Those opposite failed the test. They had a chance to show that they truly do get it, that this is a time when it is hard to get capital at the price needed because they set us on a trajectory around inflation when they were in office. Their spending, their blowouts of the budget, their increases in debt—one trillion of debt—the way that they failed to deal with supply chains, the way that inflation went off the rails and the way it set us on an interest rate trajectory that we're having to deal with now in government, when we try to get that fixed, they are not there. The point I make, friends, is that they are never there to support manufacturing. They only support manufacturing when there's a camera around, when they can put on the high-vis and they can pretend to.

We on this side think Australian manufacturing deserves better than that. I look at my colleagues and I look at how many of them, in the outer suburbs and the regions, visit their manufacturers and are proud of what they do. Each and every one of you can go back and say, 'We back what you do.' We back Australian know-how; we back ideas. We don't want firms to feel like they have to leave this nation to get the support they rightly deserve from our own.

Why is it that we have so many firms that say they can't get capital from local investors but they get it from overseas investors or overseas governments that back manufacturing quicker than our own? Labor are determined to change this. We are determined to back our ideas, back our businesses, back our workers, back their growth and back them being able to grow communities and make a difference. We said in opposition, friends, that we would do this. We all lived the lesson of the pandemic, when the things we needed were not there at the time we needed them most. We said, 'We'll learn the lesson.' We didn't say, 'We'll learn the lesson,' and then do nothing and forget about it later. We said we would take concrete action. We promised the Australian people we would develop this fund. We promised that we would see that money available for communities that value manufacturing, and we are delivering.

We wish we had had the support of those opposite, but it's clear they are the fakes and flakes when it comes to manufacturing. They are never there when we need their support. But, friends, we will do it. We will get this job done. We will make sure that Australian manufacturing gets the support it needs. You all, as well as the crossbench and the Greens, can go back to your communities and rightly say, 'We've got your back.' And we are proud of this fact. I'm proud of the support. I'm proud of the fact that the House has endorsed one of the greatest investments in manufacturing capability. With that, I thank the House for its time.

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