Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This morning I am proud to speak in support of the Albanese Labor government's Future Made in Australia Bill 2024. This bill is a major step in implementing the government's Future Made in Australia vision to deliver our country's next generation of prosperity. A Future Made in Australia is a proactive agenda. It's about creating new jobs and new opportunities for every part of our country, from the cities to regional and remote areas, by maximising the economic and industrial benefits of the move to net zero and securing Australia's place in a changing global, economic and strategic landscape. It will help Australia build a stronger, more diversified and more resilient economy, powered by renewable energy. It will create more secure well-paid jobs and encourage and facilitate the private sector investment required to make Australia an indispensable part of the global net zero economy.

The Albanese Labor government is investing in a Future Made in Australia to unlock private investment in future industries and bring new jobs and opportunities to communities across the country. As the Treasurer was reported saying in the Australian newspaper today:

The biggest part of our plan is tax breaks, because a Future Made in Australia is all about attracting private investment—not replacing it.

We know it's possible because it's already happening. Solar panels are being made with Australian minerals, and Australian research is leading to breakthroughs in medicine and health. If we don't act now to shape the future of our great nation, other countries will shape our future for us.

The coalition is unfortunately opposing this bill and the Greens are playing possum. I implore the Liberals and the Greens to put politics aside and vote for this bill in the national interest. We want more things made here. We want Australians making those things. We want Australians having more control over their own future and more economic security.

This bill is all about realising Australia's genuine natural advantages and recognising that our future growth prospects lie at the intersection of our industrial, resources, skills and energy bases and our attractiveness as an investment destination. The bill and omnibus bill deliver on key elements of the government's Future Made in Australia plan announced by the government in the 2024-25 budget. They impose rigor on government decision-making and help give investors the clarity and certainty they need to invest and unlock growth in our economy.

The Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 includes three key components. It embeds the government's new national interest framework to help identify where Australia has a genuine comparative advantage in the net zero economy or where we have an economic security and resilience imperative. It establishes a robust, effective assessment process to help improve understanding of how government can best leverage private investment in areas of the economy aligned with the framework and help inform rigorous government decision-making. And it defines a set of community benefit principles to ensure that the benefits of a Future Made in Australia support, and the private sector investment enables, flow to local communities, workers and businesses.

The Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 contains amendments to implement key Future Made in Australia initiatives announced in the budget. These include enabling Export Finance Australia to make domestically focused investments under the National Interest Account in alignment with the National Interest Framework. It safeguards $6 billion in funding for arenas, renewables and related priorities, giving industry and investors certainty to deliver sizable, long-lasting projects. And it 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. Legislation covering additional elements of the Future Made in Australia plan, including production tax credits and a single front door for investments, will be brought forward in future sittings.

This Labor government's vision for a Future Made in Australia is already becoming reality and goes well beyond the strict remits of this bill. We are building infrastructure and support for our manufacturing jobs in the regions to aid them on the journey towards stronger economic security. Our Powering the Regions program offers a big funding boost for clean energy and emissions reduction projects at heavy industrial sites around the country. Earlier this year the Minister for Climate Change and Energy visited Railton in my electorate to announce a $330 million investment in nine projects, four of them in Tasmania, to keep Australian industry not just surviving but thriving as demand for low-emissions products grows around the world. Cement Australia's facility in Railton is more than 100 years old, and funding of $52.9 million will upgrade its kiln and increase the use of alternative fuels, such as waste, to reduce emissions.

Industries like cement, alumina, mining, iron and steel processing, chemicals manufacturing, and food processing are all critical, not just to Australia's past but to our future, which is why we want to invest in them for the long term. Investment in these projects will cut 830,000 tonnes of emissions every year. That's equivalent to taking every single one of Tasmania's cars and trucks off the roads. And our program of investing in infrastructure, strategic transport and net zero will set up our nation and our people for a more prosperous and sustainable future. This government is investing $80 million in the Lyell Highway, which connects the northern Hobart suburbs to the ever-growing Derwent Valley. It's another example of what we're doing to connect our regions. And we've only just started. I'm proud that Tasmanians will play their part in our vision to build a stronger Australia and that we will not forget them as those opposite tend to do.

I was dismayed to hear the comments on this bill by the member for Mallee last night, deriding the development of green hydrogen industries—something the former government supported, by the way. Hydrogen plays a major part in this nation's future, particularly in northern Tasmania. So I was very disappointed to hear the comments from the member for Mallee.

The Labor government's proactive approach to a Future Made in Australia is a far cry from the Liberals' nuclear plan, as they scramble to find a difference in an election year. The coalition's 'future made in plutonium' plan claims that the first two of its reactors can be operational by 2037, a time frame that independent energy experts like the CSIRO have said would not be possible and would cost around $100 billion in taxpayer money. And they have the nerve to accuse this government of unnecessary spending!

I go to the comments of the member for Hume in his remarks to the House last night on this: 'You cannot run an aluminium smelter unless you have affordable, reliable energy. It's the same with an aluminium refinery and with any metals processing or food processing. Affordable, reliable energy is not negotiable.' We agree with that comment from the member for Hume. It's not often that you'll find those of us on this side of the House agreeing with anything the member for Hume has to say, but we agree with that comment. But his idea of affordable, reliable energy is to back in a nuclear plan for seven reactors that is totally uncosted.

The coalition have already said that every single dollar for nuclear energy will be coming from the government—government controlled nuclear reactors and government-paid-for nuclear reactors. They're going to ride roughshod over local communities. The leader of the National Party has said this is part of their plan. There'll be no consultation with local communities. Those seven sites in Australia are getting a nuclear reactor under the coalition come hell or high water. Too bad if you don't want it. Their plan for supposedly affordable and supposedly reliable energy is to back in a nuclear plan that won't be here for decades and that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars—every cent of it from the taxpayer. It's laughable. Absolutely laughable.

There are so many questions that have been left unanswered by those opposite as we stare down the barrel in a few months of going to an election. They still have not provided details on this critical point of how they seek to provide energy security to this country. The Labor government's plan is well mapped out and is there for everyone to see. It's the plan we took to the election. It's the plan we are delivering in government if only we were not being stopped and delayed by an unholy alliance of those opposite and the Greens on the crossbench.

The fact is the Liberal plan—you can't even really call it a plan—the Liberal thought bubble for nuclear lacks detail, is divisive and will cost at least twice as much as the renewable plan that the government is bringing forward for Australia. Under the Liberals, Australians' power bills will go nuclear. They won't come down; they will go absolutely nuclear.

My argument about nuclear is not an argument about the science. Clearly nuclear works, but the economics don't work for Australia. The time to go nuclear in this country would have been at least, if not more than, 10 years ago. But it didn't happen. Certainly during the coalition's time in office they never once raised it as a viable option. They had 10 years to bring forward and did nothing.

By contrast, renewable technology has come a long way, and Australia is a leader in it. Australia has the best natural energy resources in the world. To exploit what renewable energy has to offer has been shown in my home state of Tasmania. We've had hydropower in my state for a century. It works. The proof is in the pudding. Yet those opposite at every turn will deride renewable energy and the great benefits it can bring to this country. Instead they will pursue their nuclear fantasy, and every Australian will suffer as a result.

The golden opportunity in front of us as a parliament will disappear if we don't take the steps to support this bill's passage through this parliament. The Australian people have already suffered enough through a decade of denial and delay under those opposite, and if the coalition had their way there'd be another wasted decade ahead going down a nuclear road to nowhere. This government has chosen a better path—a path to prosperity, a path backed by evidence and supported by science and a path that will be rigorously interrogated and transparently explained to the Australian people. It's a path that uplifts all Australians of every community, not just some. It's a path that leads to a future made right here in Australia.

This is the biggest pro-manufacturing package in this country's history. But what it's going to require to deliver it is Australians working together, including our government, the state and territory governments, councils, big business, small business, universities, research centres, trade unions, workers and everybody else working together in the national interest for a future made in Australia.

The world is moving towards renewable energy. It's not just governments, it's businesses as well. The private sector is moving towards renewable energy and we are the sunniest, windiest continent on earth. It's time we put that to work. The world is changing with or without Australia, and the time to act is now. If we don't shape our own future, others will shape it for us. It's time to invest in a better future for all Australians to fund the apprenticeships, create opportunities in our TAFEs and universities, build the infrastructure and attract new investment that will boost industry and back new ideas. I proudly commend this bill to the House.

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