Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Monash. I agree with you that we need to support manufacturing, and the best way that that could happen is by supporting the National Reconstruction Fund, so I urge you to support it in the House. I also thank the member for Capricornia for giving me another opportunity to talk about the Albanese Labor government's record on supporting Australian manufacturing. I'm particularly proud to speak about this as an engineer that has worked in industry. I note that I'm speaking after the member for Hunter, who is a metalworker trained as a toolmaker and is a fitter and turner. This government has committed $15 billion towards the establishment of a National Reconstruction Fund. This includes $61 million this financial year to support the establishment and oversight of the fund. This is the biggest investment in Australian manufacturing since World War II. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Contained within this investment is $3 billion for renewables and low-emissions technology. The thing that I would highlight from our energy perspective is that the lowest unit cost of energy that we have in Australia at the moment is renewable energy. This is something that this government understands. The $3 billion for renewables and low-emission technology includes areas like clean-energy component manufacturing and technologies that improve energy efficiency. This will help to deliver more affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy to Australian industry over the long term.

Australian industry wants energy market certainty and support in its transition towards a clean renewable energy economy. Under the previous government there were 30 attempts at an energy policy and not one was put into action effectively. So if the member for Capricornia wants to talk about supporting manufacturing, she should look at the last decade to see what the government had a handbrake on. Our government are being deliberate and considerate in the rollout of this landmark policy. Rushing money out without due diligence is how we ended up with sport rorts. It's how we ended up with the Badgerys Creek airport fiasco, where the Commonwealth paid an astounding $29.8 million for land that was valued at $3 million. Rushing major policy for political gain is how we ended up with colour-coded spreadsheets under the previous government. We're working with urgency, but we are also talking about $15 billion of taxpayer dollars. This is why we're also working with industry, communities and workers to make sure that we get the National Reconstruction Fund right—and industry is appreciative. Let me quote from the Australian Aluminium Council:

The key pathway to enabling new economy industries will be to leverage the capability in the regions of our existing industry. A circular economy and domestic focus for industry policy will maximise the value of these new industries.

The NRF is one part of the solution.

Labor has a vision for industry. We also have a vision for good, forward-thinking, well-paid, blue-collar jobs in Australia. This vision will also provide our country with the sovereign capability necessary to insulate against supply shocks. We also talk about inflation, which right now is a global issue, and we can see that it has been caused by external supply shocks resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is not something this government shies away from, and we know that this is a confronting issue for households, businesses and industry. We knew that, under the previous government, when inflation jumped up by 2.1 per cent in the March 2022 quarter, this was the greatest increase in inflation in decades.

But I know that investing in Australian domestic manufacturing capacity is deflationary. It's about improving productivity and it means that, should a dictator decide to illegally invade their neighbour, the impact this has on prices will be reduced. Productivity is really important, and the truth is that, under the previous government, productivity of the economy was not looked at. If there had been foresight by the previous government on energy and manufacturing, the pain that household businesses and industries are feeling today would have been reduced. Instead, they got announcements without substance from—was it nine or 11 industry ministers? I cannot remember.

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