Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Much as I like the member for Fraser, and I commend his admirable contribution to this debate—very thoughtful, as usual—I find it interesting that early in his remarks he spoke about the appetite for risk in the private sector and the concern that the private sector didn't want to take on as much risk as it sometimes needed to. I'd remind the member for Fraser and others that one of the reasons we have the economy we have today is because the private sector did exactly that.

As I've said before in this place, when Apple were developing its computers or when IBM was developing its computers or Microsoft was developing its software, they didn't need government subsidies or government interventions. They took the risk to develop a technology that they believed would be to the benefit of our society. There are many, many other stories just like that right across this country.

I met recently with a local business that builds the hydraulics for the swimming platforms on large pleasure boats. If you drove past their factory without walking in, unless you knew what they do you wouldn't know what they do. They export that product all around the world. It's not just used for boats here in Australia but it's exported to the world. Not only do they do that but they also make specialist high quality water filters and desalination equipment for those boats which are, again, exported around the world. Do they need government grants or government intervention in the market? Not on your Nelly. What they need is for government to get out of the way and let them do what they do. Because they are already world leading at what they do and compete in the global marketplace.

I will commend the member for Fraser in his contribution because he actually failed largely to address any of the issues or any of the key points in this bill. I suppose it will surprise very few in this place, given the contribution of my colleagues previously in this debate, that the opposition opposes these bills. The reason we oppose these bills is that they are purely and simply a slush fund for the government to splash money around for their chosen political mates. If the government actually took a different tack and decided to get out of the way of business and let them do what they do, our economy would be doing much, much better.

We have seen under this government's watch over the past two and a bit years that Australians have continued to dig into their savings to make ends meet and they've had to sacrifice a lot. But not only have individual Australian households had to do that; increasingly, Australian business has had to do that. And as I look at this Future Made in Australia Bill I have concerns that it is not going to solve the problem; it is only going to add to it.

Australia has a proud and strong manufacturing industry, and it's something the coalition has always supported. The coalition had, until those opposite came into government and abolished it, the manufacturing modernisation grant. This achieved, for many businesses around this country, what this slush fund will not. I'll give you a couple of examples just for businesses in my electorate, Merino Country and ATP Science among them. Merino Country were able to adopt new technology in sewing machines and innovative production methods to increase productivity, profitability and competitiveness in the area of our economy of textiles and clothing, which we have seen hollowed out over the past 20 or 30 years. They expanded the business, created jobs and, importantly, created Australian produced clothing that has the potential to replace imported goods. That is the real future made in Australia that our manufacturers want to see.

I'll give another example. Holmwood Highgate were successful in a grant through that fund for a laser cutter. The laser cutter is the largest flatbed laser cutter in the Southern Hemisphere. The productivity and throughput that it has created for that business has allowed them to be competitive and to be much more productive in the production of their bulk liquid tanks. Not only that, but, because of the capacity of that machine, they've been able to allow other businesses in our local community that require a piece of equipment that is a bit larger than what they have in their factories to come in and use that laser cutter to build and improve their productivity in their businesses. So, that grant to one business has not only benefited that business; it has also had a flow-on effect to many other businesses in our community, where they work together to use the advantage of that new technology.

The modern manufacturing fund built on other coalition government investments in manufacturing growth and competitiveness through the advanced manufacturing fund, the advanced manufacturing growth centre, the entrepreneurs program and a $40 million investment in the innovative manufacturing cooperative research centre. But, again, the latter shut its doors after the Albanese Labor government came into power—but not before leaving behind a legacy of approximately $4.2 billion in additional revenue growth for our economy.

How can our nation's manufacturers and companies like Merino Country, Holmwood Highgate and many others trust what this government is proposing and trust that it is going to do the job it says it's going to do? Far too often we see in this place the difference, the gulf, between what the government says it's going to do and what it actually delivers. Their favourite phrase in this place is, 'We're putting more money back into people's pockets and they're keeping more of what they earn.' Well, for those opposite, that is very far from the case. Under this government, with the increase in interest rates, the increase in the cost of living and the increase in electricity prices, whatever little crumbs those opposite have given back to the Australian people have been well and truly eaten up by the growth in the cost of living and then some.

The average person in my electorate who has a mortgage is $30,000-odd worse off per year just through increased mortgage payments, let alone increased electricity and grocery prices. The bits that they've got back through the tax cuts and other measures are very far from even touching the sides. Hence, we have seen a huge fall in the amount of savings of ordinary Australians and businesses to fund those increased costs of living and doing business.

Electricity is one of the things that are in everything that we do, and the increases in electricity prices and gas prices for our manufacturers have been extraordinary. Not only that, but, through the government's failure to control inflation, the costs of their leases have gone up. The costs of their inputs right across the board have gone up. Wages have gone up. We want Australians to be well paid and have good jobs, but we're seeing now, with the new industrial relations laws that are coming for small businesses in the next few weeks, the introduction of the capability for unions to turn up, knock on your door and say, 'We want a delegate in your small business.' Why would a small business that looks after its employees and is manufacturing the goods that this country needs need a union delegate? It doesn't. But all this additional red tape and these additional costs and expense are impacting our small businesses, and this Future Made in Australia fund will do nothing to address that.

We've already seen a couple of the government's flagship projects for this come into question, such as the PsiQuantum quantum computing announcement. We question why that has been done in that way. They say they want to introduce a National Interest Framework, yet this quite obviously hasn't been through that process. More recently, we've seen the government's flagship solar scheme, Solar Sunshot, go up in flames as the cold, hard reality of the cost of doing business in this country is realised. What other things are there that the government is working on but hasn't done the work on to understand the cost to deliver what is proposed? The best thing we can do as a country is actually get out of businesses' lives and let them do what they do best, which is to provide high-quality goods and services that are both used here in Australia and exported to the world. They don't need the government in their lives to do that.

There is an alternative, and that is what we did as a coalition when we were in government and what we propose to do if we are fortunate enough to get back into government. The coalition is looking at doing three things: we want to steer our nation out of the current domestic crisis that we find ourselves in under this Labor government; we will not simply talk about the challenges of our time but meet them head-on, with the action to carve out a more secure future for our country; and, most importantly, we will make decisions that set our nation up for success for the generations to come. We want the country to play to its successes and strengths. We want to build a nation which is a mining, manufacturing and agricultural powerhouse and a leader in technology and innovation. Do we have the capacity to do that? Absolutely. We've demonstrated over the last century or more Australia's capacity to do those things, more often than not without government intervention and interference.

It is these things that we want to focus on to ensure that our country is a success. It requires strong economic management, not slogans and handouts. It's about getting back on track and getting back to basics. We need to reduce the inflationary pressure right across our economy. We need to remove the interventions and the regulatory roadblocks that are standing in people's way. We need to remove the complexity and hostility of Labor's industrial relations agenda. We need to provide lower, simpler and fairer taxes for all. We want to deliver a competition policy which gives consumers and small businesses a fair go and we want to ensure that Australians have more affordable and reliable energy. It's this economic plan, with tried and tested principles, which will restore competitiveness and rebuild economic confidence.

I want to see a country in which we make things of high quality that go right around the world. This requires strong economic management and not slogans and handouts. As we've seen, a couple of their key projects are already at risk. This bill is euphemistically titled 'Future Made in Australia'. I am worried that it won't be a future made in Australia; it will be a future missing in Australia. That is what this coalition is determined to stop.

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