Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Australia needs a productivity boost if we are going to maintain our high living standards into the future. Income per head of the population in Australia has been falling for some decades. We had a small boost during the years of the mining boom, when there were large investments in capital that were associated with that, but that was short-lived. The previous coalition government had a very lazy approach to developing industry and basically no economic plan. They relied on resources and a 'she'll be right' attitude when it came to developing the Australian industry.

The last government that had a substantial plan to boost productivity in Australia was the Hawke-Keating government. Their economic reforms laid the foundations for three decades of economic growth and prosperity and, importantly, a rise in living standards, ensuring that Australians' incomes were increasing and that their quality of life was increasing too.

We need an industry plan. The industry plan in the 1980s and 1990s was built on reform of manufacturing—on reform of the textile industry, reform of the automotive industry, reform of aviation and reform of financial services. All of these reforms to elaborately transform manufacturing ensured that Australia remained competitive in a very competitive world, particularly in South-East Asia, where nations were moving into a developing status and establishing manufacturing industries at a lower cost to Australia. We managed to reform our industry to compete into the future. Without those reforms, we certainly wouldn't be enjoying the incomes that we do today, or the living standards. It's time for Australia to develop and implement another economic reform plan similar to the one developed by the Hawke and Keating governments. That's what the Future Made in Australia plan is all about.

We can't simply rely on resources and a 'she'll be right' attitude. We need to plan to attract capital investment in industries that will generate income, particularly given that we have an ageing population with a shrinking workforce and an increasing reliance on services—particularly health and aged care services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme. If we're going to fund those services, we need to be generating additional income for the country.

The way to do that is through capital investment, but not just any capital investment. We need to make sure that we're investing in industries that will have a resilient future and will return income to the country. There's a global competition going on for capital investment. It's not so much happening in services, it's not happening in resources and it's not happening in infrastructure and construction. It's happening in renewable energy and the net zero economy and it's happening in artificial intelligence. Currently, a billion dollars a day is being invested in artificial intelligence in corporations throughout the world. Australia needs to make sure that we transform our economy so that we can compete for those vital investment dollars and create jobs and businesses, grow our economy and generate incomes for the future.

When it comes to those two industries, particularly the net zero economy and renewable energy, Australia has a natural competitive advantage. We've got the one thing that many countries don't have—both access to sunlight and access to wind. We've also got a great foundation and a great tradition of innovation when it comes to industry, particularly in this area.

This evening in the parliament, the University of New South Wales Showcase is celebrating their 75 years, and a big highlight of that showcase is reforms in the energy industry. The solar and photovoltaic developments that took place at the University of New South Wales have been commercialised throughout the world and there are no solar panels anywhere in the world that do not contain an innovation that was invented and commercialised at the University of New South Wales.

We've got a great tradition of being able to compete in these industries but we need to make sure that we're anticipating where the growth is going to be and we're attracting the capital. That will involve the participation of government through an industry policy.

Enter our Future Made in Australia plan. It's about triggering that capital investment to ensure that Australia is an attractive place to invest and that those industries can establish themselves and have a future in our country. Our plan is about maximising the economic and industrial benefits of the global transformation to net zero and securing Australia's place in a changing economic and strategic landscape.

The bill delivers a number of elements of that Future Made in Australia plan. I want to talk about three key elements. Firstly, it embeds the government's new National Interest Framework to help identify where Australia has a genuine comparative advantage in a net zero economy or where we have an economic security and resilience imperative. Secondly, it establishes a robust sector assessment process to help improve understanding of how our government can best leverage private investment in areas of the economy aligned with the framework and help form rigorous government decision-making.

Thirdly, it defines a set of community benefit principles to ensure that the benefits of the Future Made in Australia program support the private sector investment it enables to flow to local communities, workers and businesses. In those areas, particularly in renewable energy, Australia has a great tradition and has been successful in government, partnering with industry to commercialise projects and business opportunities that would have otherwise have not been able to attract commercial investment and commercial capital without the assistance of government.

I'm speaking of course of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. That body has been able to leverage support from government with private capital to generate some wonderful new innovative solutions to the net zero transition and to ensure that in the process we're creating solid, sustainable businesses and jobs for Australians. We've got a history of doing this and doing it well. The Future Made in Australia Bill builds on that tradition and ensures that government partners with industry to trigger that investment in renewable energy, in the net zero economy and in artificial intelligence so that Australia can attract those investors to this country, establish those businesses, establish those industries, create jobs and ensure that we do have a future that is made in Australia.

Debate interrupted.

See this speech in context