Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024. I only hope I've got some time to address some of the issues that the member for Shortland raised while on that absolute frolic, but I do want to get my speech out. I encourage him to listen on as he's driving home tonight.

I've worked really hard in Fisher to bring back small business and manufacturing since my election in 2016. I've championed local makers and creators through my #MadeInFisher and #SupportSunshineCoast campaigns. I've celebrated leading innovators and businesses through the Fisher Community Awards, and I've worked with local, national and global businesses to cultivate a defence industry on the Sunshine Coast. Unfortunately, the defence industry minister has just walked out the door. Eight years on, the Sunshine Coast is emerging as a high-tech, high-value manufacturing hub, contributing to crucial supply chains in defence, health, food and beverages. I want to take a moment to highlight them for their grit, determination and ingenuity. We've got craft brewers like Your Mates Brewing in Warana, Brouhaha in Baringa and Moffat Beach Brewing in Caloundra. We've got distillers like Stillmaker and Sons in Montville, Beachtree Gin in Caloundra and the brand-new Rare Orchid Distilling in Landsborough. Unfortunately, I don't drink so I can't partake in any of those goods.

We've got other companies like GreaseBoss, who are absolutely transforming the way that large-scale mining and manufacturing equipment is greased—it's very important to have regular greasing. We've also got HeliMods, run by Will Shrapnel, which is a great local business in Caloundra. They do some fantastic work with their mission config systems turning helicopters into mobile intensive care ambulances. They are doing that around the world, and they are based in Caloundra. They're also playing a vital role in the former coalition government's Ghost Bat program. Eniquest is another local manufacturer in my electorate. They create diesel generators for our Australian and New Zealand armies and provide auxiliary power units to forward operating bases, to Bushmaster vehicles and to Hawkei vehicles. A big shout-out to Don Pulver and his team for the great work that they do there.

Leakster is using AI to monitor and condition water assets. I see the member for Blair has walked into the chamber. While Kilcoy Global's abattoir might be in his electorate, the head office is in mine. Kilcoy Global is a tremendous business, employing thousands of people around the country, and they've just gone and built a very extensive food manufacturing facility where they manufacture and package food up. If you're like me and you keep some of those meals in the freezer or your fridge at home for when you don't have time to cook something and you can whack it in the microwave, chances are they've come from Kilcoy Global. It's a great local business, and I'm going to claim them, member for Blair, as being a Sunshine Coast business rather than a Blair based business. It's just the abattoir in Blair, but the brains of the operation and the manufacturing plant are in Caloundra.

King Truss is creating building and hardware supplies, and is a great local truss and wall manufacturer. I've been out to visit the team there. First Light Fabrication is creating and fabricating marine equipment. Nybro is manufacturing disability-accessible vehicle modifications. In fact, a big shout-out to the Nybro team, who did the modifications to my own daughter Sarah's car. Wherever you turn, from the shores of Alexandra Headland to the foothills of Mount Mellum, you'll find Fisher manufacturers, primary producers and creators putting the Sunshine Coast on the map.

It's for those local manufacturers and small businesses that I stand today in opposition to this bill. The more we learn about this bill, the more we see the blatant truth, which is that this Labor government has no plan for our economy, nor do they have a plan for our manufacturers or for sovereign capability. This legislation is nothing more than plain, old-fashioned pork-barrelling. It's a framework for big government and big bureaucracy. It's a proposal to increase the cost of doing business with Labor's big, red stamp of approval.

This is another instance of this Labor government trying to spin their way out of trouble. It's a bill which demands that Australian families and their businesses look past the last two years of absolute chaos and trust Labor to make the right calls. That's what they're asking. They say, 'Don't worry about what's happened over the last two years. Trust us. We'll get it right.' Well, last time a government said, 'Trust us', I think most Australians would say, 'No, thank you.' After a litany of broken promises and a catalogue of crises, one thing is absolutely crystal clear: Australians do not trust this Prime Minister or this government to do the right thing.

The bill provides for a national interest framework, which would consider where government investment—that is, taxpayers' money—should go, based on a very narrow set of criteria. It expands the remit of Export Finance Australia and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to fund domestic industries. Worse still, it puts the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance in charge of decision-making. Let me put this very simply: these laws will give the Treasurer the power to decide where to spend Australians' money. It is a slush fund, plain and simple, with nearly $4 billion in its coffers. This is the same Treasurer and the same government which have directed $13.7 billion and more into green energy pipedreams while ignoring the rising cost of energy, water and utilities. They poured millions of dollars into the Environmental Defenders Office, funding lawyers to sue the government. Green corporate welfare, green tape and overregulation, investing in fanciful projects, which the market is now abandoning, because it makes for a good social media post—all of this is paid for by taxpayers, who are now paying 21 per cent more in their electricity prices. They are now paying 22 per cent more in their gas prices.

Members of the government are living with their heads in the clouds if they think that Australian manufacturers are going to be able to be competitive with other countries around the world whilst this government continues to drive up energy prices with the member for McMahon's wild and crazy ideas. You know, when I was a kid, Deputy Speaker Vasta—and you'd appreciate this; I believe you used to play soccer as a kid. When you're playing soccer and you're on the sporting field, and the opposition is giving you a hard time, what did we used to say if we were up? We'd point to the scoreboard and say, 'Scoreboard, old son; scoreboard.' Well, scoreboard. Look at what's happening to this country. Look at the cost of living. Look at what is happening in no small part because of the government's policies in relation to energy. How in God's name does this government think that our manufacturers are going to compete?

I spoke about all those companies earlier. I constantly get manufacturers saying to me: 'Andrew, I'm just having so much trouble. I am having so much trouble keeping my head above water because of the costs.' You think the costs of running a household have gone sky high? You ought to try the costs of being a manufacturer in Australia right now. And why is that? When you make things, you need to use energy. Let me say that again for those members opposite who may not understand. When you make things, you have to use energy, and that energy has to come from somewhere.

With the folly of this government's rise and rise and push for—what is it—83 per cent renewables in such a short timeframe, our industries, our manufacturers are saying: 'Well, I might as well shut up shop, because I can't do what I have been used to doing and provide it for a similar price. I've got to either increase my prices significantly or stop doing what I'm doing.' That is to the eternal shame of this government.

My side of politics has been derided for this for some time by the Greens and by Labor, but do you know what? It is a truism. You can't run manufacturing with solar panels and wind turbines when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. Even if you have very significant batteries, the sort of industries that manufacturers are trying to run—you try running a steel smelter or an aluminium smelter on renewables or batteries. At the moment, it can't be done. It cannot be done. Wouldn't it be nice? Yes, it'd be nice. It'd be nice if I drove a Maserati, but the reality is that the technology is not there.

The member for Shortland had the audacity to talk about deindustrialisation. This government is doing its level best to deindustrialise this country. It beggars belief that those members opposite still want to talk about the car manufacturing industry when this government is driving local manufacturing into the ground.

The member for Shortland also talked up a big game about defence manufacturing. I'm sure I'm not the only person to say this to the member for Shortland, who's probably on his way home now: local defence manufacturers, member for Shortland, are not happy with you. Every defence industry contractor that I talk to that is based in Australia says the same thing to me, and that is that defence contracting in Australia has stopped dead. It has stopped dead because this government was so immersed in things like the Voice referendum. It was so immersed in doing review after review after review that the money stopped for defence contractors. A lot of these small defence contractors—it's axiomatic—were small businesses. When you choke a small business of cash flow, what happens? The small business dies. It withers on the grapevine. So for the member for Shortland to come in here and start spruiking defence industry manufacturing is patently wrong.

I don't think I have spoken to an Australian defence industry contractor who is singing happy days right now. They are bleeding. They are haemorrhaging money. Some of those businesses, as I indicated, are in my electorate, but it's not just those in my electorate. It is right across this country. It's because of the indecisiveness. It's because power prices are so damn high in this country right now and because this government seems to just do nothing in relation to defence industry that these poor beggars are now having to lay people off. What really concerns me is that they will have lost faith in the Australian government. Whether it's Labor or the conservatives, they will have lost faith in us. But I want to assure them: hang tough. Hang in there till the next election, because hopefully we will retake the reins again and we will restore it.

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