Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 and the Future Made in Australia (Omnibus Amendments No. 1) Bill 2024. As the House well knows, the Albanese Labor government is taking every measure to seize the opportunities before us and to drive our economy so everyone in our nation benefits, and the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 is at the heart of our government's vision for a stronger, more prosperous, more resilient and more diversified Australian economy. We know how important it is to have that diversity and strength right across our economy, particularly across our regions.

Today and every day, our government is working to help Australians who are under financial pressure. We know people are doing it tough, and that's why we're acting on cost of living and boosting wages, at the same time we're delivering those very important tax cuts to every Australian taxpayer, making sure that Australians can earn more and keep more of what they earn. In my electorate of Richmond on the New South Wales North Coast, more than 70,000 taxpayers benefit from these tax cuts. So we are absolutely making sure that we are doing a number of projects to make sure we can ease some of those cost-of-living pressures. We know there is more to do and we know people are doing it tough, but we have a whole range of measures. The energy bill relief, that $300 for every household, is vitally important as well. Every household benefits from that. We're also making sure people benefit from cheaper child care, cheaper medicines and fee-free TAFE. There are so many more who have been able to access TAFE because of our fee-free TAFE policies.

So the government is delivering economic security for all Australians, and we want, of course, to build on that and continue that by making more things here in Australia. That's what the centrepiece of this bill does: making more things in this nation. It certainly is a call that I hear from people in my electorate all the time: 'We should be making more things here, using our resources and our people, creating more jobs and being able to make a lot more here.' Indeed, as they say to me all the time, we should be making our nation a renewable energy superpower. That's what we are committed to doing. All of that makes our economy more resilient and more secure. We also want to make it easy for companies to invest in new projects and create new jobs, particularly in our regions.

The government's Future Made in Australia plan is about maximising the economic and industrial benefits of the global transformation to net zero and securing Australia's place in a changing global economic landscape. It will help Australia build a stronger, more diversified and more resilient economy powered by renewable energy. We know how important that is. It'll create more secure, well-paid jobs and encourage and facilitate the private sector investment required to make our nation an indispensable part of the global net zero economy.

This bill and omnibus bill deliver on key elements of the government's Future Made in Australia plan, which we announced in our budget this year. They impose rigour 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 includes three components. Firstly, the bill 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 also establishes a robust sector assessment process to help improve understanding of how government can best leverage private investment in areas of the economy aligned with the framework. Furthermore, this bill defines a set of community benefit principles, which are so important to ensure the benefits of a future made in Australia and the private sector investment that it enables flow to local communities, workers and businesses. It's vitally important to have that community benefit principle.

The bill contains amendments to implement key Future Made in Australia initiatives announced in the budget this year. Some of those amendments include enabling Export Finance Australia to make domestically focused investments under the National Interest Account in alignment with the National Interest Framework and safeguarding $6 billion in funding for ARENA's renewables and related priorities, giving industry and investors certainty to deliver sizeable, long-term and long-lasting projects. That's what we need to have in this country.

The Future Made in Australia Bill embeds that National Interest Framework, which, as I said, was announced in the budget. The framework will support Australian government consideration and decision-making in relation to significant public investment that then also unlocks private investment at scale in the national interest. This really is a visionary bill and a move by this government to secure that investment for the future. Codifying the framework in legislation will help provide certainty to the investment community and bring additional rigour to government decision-making.

The National Interest Framework includes two streams. The first is the net zero transformation stream, which covers sectors that could have a sustained comparative advantage in a net zero global economy and where public investment is likely to be needed for the sector to make emissions reductions. The other stream is economic resilience and security, which covers sectors where some level of domestic capability is a necessary or efficient way to deliver economic resilience and security. The private sector will not deliver that necessary investment in the absence of government support. That's why it's so vitally important to have this government's support to drive this.

The bill enables sector assessments which assess the extent to which a sector aligns with the National Interest Framework and those opportunities to address some of the barriers to private investment in our nation's interest. These assessments will help inform robust government decision-making on significant public investments that aim to unlock that private investment. The bill allows for the minister to provide guidance regarding matters relevant to the assessments, such as government priorities or net zero transformation or economic security and resilience considerations that have motivated the referral.

Our government wants to ensure that public investment and private investment flow to communities in a way that really benefits the community, provides the jobs and provides the support for those families and workers in those areas. To enable this, the following community benefit principles must be applied to the Future Made in Australia supports identified in the bill. The benefit principles include:

Promote safe and secure jobs that are well paid and have good conditions;

That's certainly what I hear from people in my region and right throughout the country, particularly in regions. They need to have safe and secure jobs that provide for individuals and their families, and that then drives local economies and the national economy.

Another principle is:

Develop more skilled and inclusive workforces, including by investing in training and skills development and broadening opportunities for workforce participation;

That has been at the heart of all of the actions of this government. We are making sure that people are able to access more training and skills and that they have a wider range of opportunities for workforce participation.

The other principles are:

Engage collaboratively with and achieve positive outcomes for local communities, such as First Nations communities and communities directly affected by the transition to net zero;

Strengthen domestic industrial capabilities including through stronger local supply chains; and

Demonstrate transparency and compliance in relation to the management of tax affairs, including benefits received under Future Made in Australia Supports.

These community benefit principles will be applied on a program-by-program basis. Of course, further details to satisfy these requirements will be subject to consultation.

Above all, this bill speaks to our unwavering determination to shape the future—not wait for the future to shape us—and to drive our economy through this investment. Of course, we do know that those in opposition, the Liberals and the Nationals, don't really support what's at the heart of this bill. We know, because their speakers have come here and talked about this bill, that they just don't want our country to excel in efficient, low-cost, renewable energy. We know how important it is to drive our economy and to address climate change. We know how important it is to provide jobs, which are essential to our economic growth.

What do those on the opposition benches want? They want to hold us back with dangerous and expensive nuclear energy, which we know will also drive up power prices. That's all they have. It is a shame but, indeed, no surprise. They're always doing the opposite of what's actually good for our country and good for our economy. We know that the biggest threat to Australian jobs and investment is sitting across from us on the opposition benches. We know that, because they just aren't interested in programs and policies to drive our economy.

Their record in this House is somewhat atrocious. They voted against the National Reconstruction Fund; that's hard to believe. They voted against energy bill relief and all of the important initiatives to assist Australians. They say fee-free TAFE was a waste of money. Look at the hundreds of thousands of people that have benefitted from it. I speak to people every day who would not have been able to access training without fee-free TAFE. When they were in government, the Liberals and the Nationals gutted the CSIRO. We know that everyday Australians were worse off when the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Health. I know, in particular, that elderly people in my electorate were worse off. Who can forget the GP tax? It was horrific. Who can forget when doctors voted the then health minister, now the Leader of the Opposition, the worst in Australian political history. Indeed, those in the opposition just want to hold us back.

In contrast, the agenda of our government—the Albanese Labor government—and our Prime Minister is to hold no-one back and leave no-one behind. The legislation before us today has that principle at its absolute core, because Future Made in Australia is about unlocking private investment in jobs in industry and energy around our nation. It is a unique opportunity to provide for the future of this nation and for future jobs growth through driving our local economy. Of course, it's about making our country a renewable energy superpower. We have the capacity to do that, and that is why this bill absolutely should be passed.

In conclusion, our country has the resources, ingenuity and determination to do that. We have the capacity to do it, and we must do it. We must do it for our economy's future and for the provision of future jobs. We know how important that is. I commend this bill to the House. It is transformative for the future of our nation.

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