Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just last week it was an absolute honour to welcome back the Minister for Industry and Science to the Illawarra for his third visit to our region in as few as 84 days. Back in March the minister joined me at the University of Wollongong's Innovation Campus for the launch of LIFT 2024—a transformative initiative to empower women in STEM and entrepreneurship. The program is run by two amazing women who are absolutely passionate about getting more women into STEM, Dr Tamantha Stutchbury and Professor Danielle Skropeta, and is powered by UOW's business incubator, iAccelerate , with a $1 million grant from our government's Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship, or WISE, program.

With the opportunities arising from the cleantech revolution, STEM jobs are predicted to grow by 14.2 per cent by 2026. That's almost twice as fast as non-STEM jobs. In this budget we are investing $38.2 million to support a thriving skilled and diverse STEM workforce, bringing total government funding for women in STEM programs to $90 million. This includes providing extra funding for the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship grants, the Superstars of STEM program, the National Youth Science Forum, and Science in Australia Gender Equity, or SAGE. We are making sure that people from all corners of the community can make the most of opportunities from A Future Made in Australia.

On 10 May, the minister made the journey to the Illawarra again—this time to visit Hysata in Port Kembla, which was celebrating the southern hemisphere's largest ever series B capital raise of $172 million. The Albanese Labor government supported this capital raising, with a $15 million investment through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for the expansion of manufacturing at their Port Kembla facility, which aims to reach gigawatt-scale production of its electrolyser. After a decade of neglect from those opposite, the Albanese government is backing in Australian manufacturing. We are supporting Australian companies like Hysata to invest, grow and build sovereign capability to create a pipeline of well-paid jobs now and into the future.

Finally, on Friday last week, the minister returned again to our city of innovation and attended our mighty Port Kembla BlueScope steelworks to launch the green metals consultation paper. We are kickstarting Australia's green metal industry, and that will make us a world leader in green steel, aluminium, alumina and iron and lead to us making more things here in Australia and in the Illawarra. As the world continues to transition to net zero, demand for solar panels, electric cars, batteries and wind turbines will continue to grow along with an increasing need for them to be produced sustainably.

This budget has already backed green metals as an opportunity under the Future Made in Australia policy, including: an estimated $8 billion over the decade for renewable hydrogen production incentives; the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund that will accelerate new and innovative technologies and facilities linked to priority sectors including green metals; and the Guarantee of Origin scheme, which will be expanded to green metals. This will certify the emissions intensity of green metals, helping us to establish stronger markets for green manufacturing.

Our renewable energy transformation will require five billion tons of steel between now and 2050. We hope that green steel will play a significant role in this mix. Understandably, demand for green steel is expected to rise by 25 per cent by 2040, while demand for aluminium is predicted to increase by 63 per cent by 2050. These green metals will need a lot of renewable energy and green hydrogen to come to fruition, which are areas that we hope to have a long-term competitive advantage in, thanks to the investment and action by this Labor government in the past two years after a decade of climate denial. The transformation to green metals can provide a boost of up to $122 billion to the economy by 2040 and a sizeable win in the global fight against climate change. It will help protect the current jobs of Australian metalworkers, like those on the production line at BlueScope, and will deliver more secure well-paid jobs into the future.

We are looking to develop a uniquely Australian industry policy with a Future Made in Australia, and I commend the minister for his tenacity in reviving the Australian manufacturing industry. Of course, we can't wait for him to visit the Illawarra again.

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