Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the Chamber: we care. We care about a future made in Australia. I want to acknowledge the member for Bennelong for moving this motion for this very important topic. The Future Made in Australia plan is going to turbocharge our clean manufacturing, our industry and energy output and our capabilities. It's about time we did something like this, because we had 10 years of neglect on this matter and even before that: decisions like cutting support for auto manufacturing and then smoking cigars in celebration about it. How many of the industries that supported auto manufacturing have gone to the wall—all the small and medium sized engineering companies, all the innovation, all the skills outside of the factories themselves and the workers that worked in those factories? That's what the record of the previous coalition government was all about.

For them to come in here and criticise the Future Made in Australia plan is pretty rich. By supporting Australian businesses and fostering innovation, we're going to build that robust economy that ensures a prosperous future filled with job opportunities, creating jobs made right here in Australia. This will boost our economy, create jobs and deliver for our environment. All of these objectives are what we are aiming at to transition Australia towards net zero.

When we talk about renewables and the target of 82 per cent national renewable electricity generation by 2030, that's so critical. We're squarely focused on the path to clean-energy supply chains, where it's in our national interest to make things here and where we can be competitive. Supply chain resilience and security is absolutely critical in the current environment that we face, with geostrategic volatility and supply chain issues, which we saw during COVID. So this is also about economic security, national security and prosperity for Australians.

We've seen a 25 per cent increase in renewables in the national electricity market since we came to office. We know that global energy supply chains have been under enormous pressure in recent years. Global demand for batteries is set to quadruple by 2030 as we transition to net zero. The government knows that we can't rely on the status quo, which is why we have invested and continue to invest billions of dollars in solar, clean hydrogen and the National Battery Strategy and $1 billion to establish the Solar Sunshot to capture more of the global solar manufacturing supply chain with production credits and grants.

Australian research invented the modern solar panel, yet only one per cent of the panels on Australian roofs are made here. That's going to change. A Future Made in Australia is about creating jobs and increasing economic resilience and energy security in this space. On hydrogen, we're investing $6.7 billion over the decade for a new production tax incentive of $2 per kilogram starting from 2027-28 and $2 billion for a new round of the successful Hydrogen Headstart program. This investment's going to give industry the certainty and the confidence to advance projects here in Australia, accelerating the development of Australia's renewable hydrogen industry. It's going to give long-term certainty for the large-scale renewable hydrogen industry that's critical for future green iron and steel opportunities. We're expecting that it's going to create in regional and remote areas, which we heard the previous speaker going on about, 33,000 direct and indirect jobs and produce $28.9 billion per annum by 2040.

This is what Labor does. We provide jobs. We create jobs. We drive economic stability and innovation, and we work in partnership with scientists, with environmentalists, with engineers and with manufacturers. That's why Labor is the only party of government who can actually deliver, rather than grandstand, on this transition to net zero. We've got a National Battery Strategy, which is going to be set up and world leading, harnessing the world's leading expertise in battery technology, and we've got a STEM future. The Future Made in Australia plan is informed by our biggest, brightest minds in research. Unlike the coalition, Labor is going to nurture our research and development ecosystem, because STEM professionals are so important for the future.

See this speech in context