Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Werriwa for moving this motion. Any time spent speaking about the benefits of the National Reconstruction Fund is time well spent indeed, especially time spent speaking in this place about boosting Australia's manufacturing industry.

I'll soon start to sound like a broken record because of my passion for manufacturing jobs, but it exists for a number of reasons. In large part, it exists because of three words—and I would suggest the member for Capricornia take notes! General Motors-Holden. Whilst not the only company providing manufacturing jobs in the northern suburbs of Adelaide at the time, it provided a great deal of additional work for component manufacturing and all the way down to jobs for the trucks that came down to the plant to sell lunch to the workers on site. On one fateful day, Joe Hockey dared GM-Holden to leave, and—queue shock—they left. The company closed down their plant. Sons had followed their fathers in working there. They closed up their operations. It beggars belief that you could be shocked when a company does what you publicly dared them to do. But I digress. The closure of Holden is still felt by those in Spence.

I'd like to hope that those opposite learnt their lesson. After all, at the time Joe Hockey made that fateful statement, a large number of those opposite were not yet members of this place. Yet, during the debate in this place concerning the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill, you could see that many on the other side of the chamber still had a lot to learn. Using the tried and true libertarian line that the government shouldn't be picking winners and losers was a path well travelled. I can only look at the thousands of people in Spence who were directly and indirectly impacted by Joe Hockey's act, daring GM-Holden to leave, or the omission—by withdrawing government support to the company. The government made an affirmative decision to pick a loser, and it's one the north will always remember. Those opposite are big on values statements. They denounce big government except when they are part of one.

Thankfully, the National Reconstruction Fund can put jobs on the menu again—good, well-paid manufacturing jobs. The National Reconstruction Fund provides for $15 billion to be put toward national priorities, such as the renewables and low-emissions technology sector, the medical manufacturing sector, value-adding in the resources sector, critical technologies, advanced manufacturing and the agricultural, forestry, fisheries, food and fibre sector.

One sector worth mentioning is the medical manufacturing sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it ever so apparent that when the attitudes of now, thankfully, former governments were not to support our manufacturing industries, it becomes very hard to un-ring that bell. It is very hard to bring things back online and upscale with very little notice—plant, equipment and personnel—in the event of an emergent increase in demand for goods. This is as true for cars as it for medical masks or other kinds of personal protective equipment. While the demand for PPE skyrocketed locally, nationally and globally, when shortages existed within our aged-care sectors and even within our hospitals, we were reliant on seeking additional supplies of masks from abroad at a time when countries were attempting to shore up their own domestic supplies and stockpiles.

Instead, how lucky we are, as Australians all were, that a coterie of Liberal Party donors and mates all decided to pivot their careers in the moment. It must be that agile entrepreneurial spirit that they all talk about on that side of the chamber! A lot of them certainly got themselves into the import-export business with PPE. But, as we all know, it certainly would have been much easier to have been able to upscale our industry at home with a running start. Those opposite may not wish to suffer a country with the government picking winners and losers in the market, but they certainly appeared time and time again to tolerate, if not cultivate, crony capitalism. It may have been a tender point to many on the other side of the chamber, but this issue may have been slightly alleviated by competitive tender processes.

I can think of a number of songs to add to the soundtrack of the previous government, including one by the Chaser, but one that is a little bit out of left field would be 'Love Me Tender' by Elvis Presley, because they did loves themselves a tender process, so long as it was closed.

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