Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise, in continuation, to debate the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024, a bill that I strongly support. We need a future made in Australia to also help hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation, heavy industry and the built environment decarbonise with low-carbon fuels like green hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels. It's absolutely crucial to the decarbonisation journey of this country. But what we have failed to acknowledge is the vast human capital needed in order to make that future made in Australia a reality. It highlights the opportunities for young Australians, if they're thinking about future careers. We have an abundance of resources in our nation, resources beneath our feet, resources in the sky and, of course, the resources that walk among us—our human capital. Knowledge workers, tradies and blue- and white-collar workers all have a place in a future made in Australia. We make around 8,500 PhDs a year. We need to stop losing them to the hunger games of academia and give them a berth in local, homegrown industries. We have around 500,000 people—we've clicked over half a million—who have signed up to fee-free TAFE, and they will absolutely be a part of a future made in Australia. Those jobs are theirs for the asking. But these workers, young and old alike, need industries to absorb them—industries that are future focused and are exploiting the opportunities of the net zero transition that is already well underway globally and the key markets in Asia that are on our doorstep. I can see some children up in the stands; this is for you.

These nascent industries, however, need help. They need support to help them compete in a distorted global market. We call ourselves an open free-market economy. The rest of the world isn't necessarily that way, so we need to give our industries a helping hand. Elsewhere, those businesses are getting incentives, tax breaks and government subsidies. That's the international reality we live in, and there's no hiding from it. The playing field has changed. If we want to make manufacturing return and then boom in Australia—and of course this side of the House does—we must make it easier for companies to go from small to medium and then leap to hopefully large-scale enterprises. There are far too many roadblocks at the moment, and that is something this bill, the Future Made in Australia Bill, addresses.

The Future Made in Australia act will be guided by a national interest framework with priority industries identified under two streams: the net zero transformation stream, focusing on renewable hydrogen, green metals and low-carbon liquid fuels; and the economic resilience and security stream, focusing on critical minerals, clean energy manufacturing and applying stronger policy overall. In general, the Future Made in Australia Bill has over $22 billion in it, and it's directed towards grants, production credits and cutting red tape in order to enable investors, whether they be domestic or foreign, to better connect with the bureaucracy and with investment vehicles within the government.

Investment vehicles include the National Reconstruction Fund, a $15 billion fund dedicated to making things in Australia again and getting high-tech, advanced manufacturing back in Australia. Whether it be defence capabilities, health care, renewable energy or ag tech, we want it all back. AI and quantum are also included in that. There's a lot of money backing that. That's the future we want, not for us but for those kids up there.

It's also important to note that those opposite voted against the National Reconstruction Fund. They don't believe in government handouts. They have their heads in the sand when it comes to the global reality. Australian companies are not competing on a level playing field globally. They need the help of government, given how far back we have fallen after a decade of Liberal inaction that watched industries after industries depart our country, the most egregious being the car industry.

These grants will include $8 billion to support green hydrogen over the next 10 years, mostly as production credits, which means that they are only paid out on success—when the green hydrogen is made. We talked to experts, and we think that commercial-scale green hydrogen is somewhere between five to eight years away. It's not that hard to make. You need sunshine, you need an electrolyser, and you need water. So there is a race on globally to make green hydrogen because it is essential as an alternative to our fossil fuels—our petrol and diesel, which are used by heavy industry.

We also have $7 billion over 11 years in tax incentives for critical mineral processing, and we have over half a billion, $549 million, for battery manufacturing. We've also invested close to half a billion in quantum computing. If there are any young people out there interested in maths and computer science, quantum computing could be a destination for you. Your pathway could be through science and/or engineering and then onto a higher degree like a master's or a PhD and then straight into this industry, which we are now establishing in Australia, and we make no apologies for it.

I would suggest to the Liberals that, for their sins, this is an opportunity to atone for the mistakes they made when they were in government, particularly around the departure of the car industry. I didn't really realise at the time what that meant for our country, but the enormity of it has actually landed—the loss of those jobs and those skills. The multiplier effect that came from that one high-tech industry cannot even be quantified. They could atone for that by voting for this Future Made in Australia Bill and give those kids up there in the gallery a pathway to secure, well-paid jobs in the future that they want. That's a future that is decarbonised and high-tech, with high living standards and well-paid, secure jobs in industries that they want—not what you want but what they want.

Manufacturing is not just a sector; it is a capability. It is essential to our prosperity and to our national security. It is a capability that drives innovation, productivity, incomes, international trade and supply chains and it has a multiplier effect. A virtual cycle spins up when manufacturing returns. One business leads to another business and another. A good example is renewable energy. Offshore wind zones are attracting data centres. Why? Because they are energy thirsty. That is attracting other businesses, even ecotourism, and then value-adding manufacturing industries. Energy is the key.

The next election will be a choice between a future made in Australia and a future made overseas. Instead of doubling down on the past and more of the same, which, frankly, I think is untenable—it means digging up and shipping stuff out and doubling down on coal and gas—we have an opportunity to value-add to our natural resources and our human capital in this country and turn Australia from the fossil fuel giant that it currently is to the sun king. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context