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

Not surprisingly, I rise to support this bill, the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024. For the benefit of the members opposite who don't support it, I want to tell them and this place why I support this bill—why we support this bill. We support this bill because, at the heart of these policies, is something that they have lacked in spades. That is leadership. It's a type of leadership. I notice they're laughing on the other side there. The member for Casey, you shouldn't laugh, because what was sorely lacking during the years of coalition drift was leadership.

What kind of leadership are we talking about when it comes to this bill and these policies? It's about showing leadership in two key areas. The first is our transition to net zero, a massive national undertaking that is important not only for Australia's future but also across the globe. The second is our leadership in restarting, revitalising and reshaping our national industries and our manufacturing and, with that, our economic resilience because of the circumstances that we face in the 21st century. That requires leadership. These are big undertakings. In doing both, we on this side of the aisle are backing Australian manufacturing, backing Australian industry and backing Australian workers, unlike those across the aisle. When they were in power, they tried to kill Australian manufacturing. They almost very much did it. When they were in power, they sought to end what had been a long and storied history of Australian workers in Australian manufacturing making things in this country.

This bill, the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024, has three key components. Firstly we want to take a principled approach to drawing private investment into priority industries to again revitalise and reshape manufacturing in this country and our Australian industries. We're doing this by implementing the National Interest Framework, or the NIF. Under the NIF the government will be able to identify where Australia has a comparative advantage in the net zero transition and also where Australia needs to be resilient and self-sufficient. That goes to that point around our national interests and our national security as well. Secondly we're undertaking a robust sector assessment to improve our understanding of how government can best leverage private investment in areas of the economy aligned with the framework. This will help inform rigorous government decision-making. Thirdly we've defined a set of community benefits, helping us measure where the benefits of the Future Made in Australia are flowing. This ensures the Future Made in Australia plan is actually benefiting local communities, people on the ground, workers and businesses through the flow of that private investment.

The second bill, the Future Made in Australia (Omnibus Amendments No. 1) Bill 2024, amends two previous acts to practically implement this government's plan for explicit public investment at scale to attract private finance in sectors that have a comparative advantage in a net zero global economy or where the domestic capability could deliver economic resilience and supply chain security. Economic resilience and supply chain security are two fundamentally important objectives of this government given the circumstances we face globally. First, the second bill amends the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act to enable Export Finance Australia, the EFA, to make domestically focused investments under the National Interest Account in alignment with the National Interest Framework. Second, it amends the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Act of 2011 to expand the role and functions of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA, so it can support industries under the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund and other programs. Through this amendment we're continuing to ensure that ARENA has $6 billion in funding so that the agency can continue to provide industry and investors certainty to deliver sizeable, long-lasting projects. Third, this bill sets up arrangements for the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund to accelerate innovative technology deployment in priority sectors and makes necessary adjustments to the governance arrangements of ARENA.

Pretty much all the members on the other side of this chamber have questioned the need for government intervention in renewables and also in the supply chain security. They may be doing that from an ideological perspective or they may be doing it because they're playing politics with these issues. But they'd have you believe that it's okay to just leave it all up to the private sector and the market and to let the capital flow where it may choose to go. That is the purist free-market ideological view.

I will say very clearly that we fundamentally disagree, and it's important to understand why. The truth is that capital doesn't just flow wherever it desires due to a free market. Capital flows to where there is innovation as well, when you incentivise that innovation. There are all sorts of interventions in the free market, many of which were made by the previous government, despite their ideological protestations. The point, though, is where and how you make those interventions and how you try to incentivise innovation so that capital can flow there.

Other countries understand that innovation brings with it the prospect of higher returns, and other countries are making themselves more and more attractive investment destinations. In a world competing for capital, that is what we are faced with today. Two whole years ago almost to this day, in another great country, the United States, the US Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a $250 billion package focused on accelerating their transition to a net-zero economy. That is, in the land of the free, a massive energy transition that was undertaken. There's no free market there at all. You're seeing a massive investment by the US government and the US Congress to incentivise that innovation, and of course we need to do the same so that we can benefit as well and our workers and our industries can do what they do really well.

It's true that this country is blessed with raw materials. We're blessed with ample sun, wind and coastline. We have a choice about whether we continue to just rely on our historical success through digging up and mining or whether we also innovate, move forward and incentivise our innovation. That's important to note.

I turn to the second part of this, which is the security of global energy and supply chains. They've been under enormous pressure in recent years, as we know. Crisis after crisis overseas, including conflicts, has had an impact on these supply chains and on global energy prices. We know that, as well as causing a grave humanitarian crisis, Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has had far-reaching impacts on the global energy system, disrupting supply and demand patterns and fracturing longstanding trading relationships. We are committed to a national target of 82 per cent for renewable electricity generation by 2030, and the global demand for batteries is set to quadruple by 2030 as the world transitions to net zero. Even as we face the impacts of conflicts like the invasion of Ukraine and their impact on those supply chains, there is a move forward towards that transition because that is what is needed.

I ask those opposite: in the market for batteries, are Australians just going to keep buying batteries that are made elsewhere, or are we going to show leadership and nurture a highly innovative industry right here at home in Australia to capture part of that burgeoning market? That's a fundamental question. For us, the answer is firmly the latter, because of the opportunity. Our National Battery Strategy will set us up to meet this demand ourselves and build a world-leading battery-manufacturing industry in Australia.

Manufacturing batteries on shore will secure Australia's place in global battery supply chains, and why shouldn't we manufacture batteries? Despite the ideological views of those opposite or the political game-playing of the Greens political party, why shouldn't we be able to move into that manufacturing space when we have the people with the skills, we can incentivise the industry and we have the lithium, copper and other raw materials? Why shouldn't we be involved in that part of the supply chain as well? Our answer is: we should because it makes a big difference to the future of Australian workers, Australian manufacturing, our self-sufficiency and our self-reliance in a very uncertain world.

Importantly, it will make us more resilient to the further supply chain shocks that will inevitably occur. We don't have a crystal ball. We don't know where they will happen or what kinds of shocks they will be, but it's highly probable there will be more. We need that resilience. We need that foundation rebuilt. We need that manufacturing kickstarted again and revitalised. Whether the shocks come from—hopefully not—pandemics, war or simply belligerence amongst various countries as trade starts to become more and more difficult, it is important that we have economic resilience and self-sufficiency so that we can produce the things that we need going forward and be part of that global market. There is also the benefit of the massive creation of good, solid, stable, Australian jobs for generations of Australians.

The opposition, in 10 years, showed no leadership in realising that Australian industries, especially nascent industries, require incentives and business-friendly conditions. They had no vision. They had no foresight. They couldn't see beyond the tip of their own nose and the politics they played. The short-termism would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic. The so-called party of low taxes and free markets wants us to be a net importer. They want us to buy from the world but never sell it to it.

The coalition turned their backs on Australian workers, on Australian manufacturing and on the very industries that could have propelled us into a new era of economic prosperity. On one level, they sat idly by and allowed our manufacturing base to wither, but they also pushed it and tried to kill it themselves, proactively putting policies in place to destroy manufacturing in this country. There was neglect, there was complacency and there was the outright undermining of manufacturing. We know the stories about car manufacturing and how they tried to kill it, and they did end a big chunk of car manufacturing in this country. We were making Toyota Camrys when the Australian dollar was high and we were selling those quality products to places in the Middle East, but they still tried to kill it.

They didn't just kill the car manufacturing; they killed all of the industries. The small and medium-sized businesses around that ecosystem that provided different parts, the small engineering companies that employed Australians—they killed them off as well. All that skill, all that knowledge, all that technical expertise—they just threw it away. Some of these small and medium-sized companies tried to evolve. They've struggled to survive and do other things, and we want to support that. But I tell you what: the days of neglect, complacency and outright viciousness towards manufacturing are over. The Albanese government is committed to a vision of a future where Australian leads the world in clean manufacturing, where our industries are not just surviving but thriving and where our workers are at the heart of our national economic success.

Let's be clear: the Future Made in Australia bills aren't just about policy. They're about people. They're about those Australians who deserve the opportunity to work in those industries—to make things in this country again, to develop and to work to make sure that we are economically resilient, self-sufficient and self-reliant and that we are not exposed to the risks that are likely over the horizon. That's why I support these bills. It's about the men and women who get up every morning, put on their workboots and head out to those factories, workshops and plants across this country. We will support them with this policy.

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