Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians have faced our fair share of challenges throughout the years: fires, floods, cyclones, world wars, and now a global pandemic and the associated global economic crisis. On top of that we are in the midst of great power competition, rapid military modernisation, cyberthreats and foreign interference. My message today is that the future of Australia as the most fortunate country in the world, with our immaculate standard of living and our security and sovereignty intact, is not assured. As the Prime Minister said in his address to the Perth USAsia Centre—and I acknowledge its eminent CEO, Gordon Flake—before he left for the G7 summit:

Our challenge is nothing less than to reinforce, renovate and buttress a world order that favours freedom.

Well, it's going to be incredibly difficult to buttress a world order that favours freedom if we simply cannot agree the priorities that we need to tackle. I do not underestimate this challenge, because we all have our own frames of reference in our lives. We all assess problems and solutions very differently.

I've been reflecting lately on how my own world view must differ even from that of my eldest daughter, Tiggy. Tiggy was born on Christmas Day in Townsville while I was at the other end of a satellite phone in East Timor, where I was on military operations. She was a toddler in her mother's arms when they waved me goodbye as I went to Solomon Islands to be part of a peacekeeping force to restore stability and order. Whilst I've lived these experiences, I can't really expect that Tiggy would have the same depth of connection to our Indo-Pacific region, the same understanding of how inextricably linked are our prosperity and security. Now I can't really comprehend the influences that Tiggy, as a first-year university student, must experience daily on campus—for example, the fear of climate change that is being stoked within our youngsters, or the prevalence of cultural self-loathing and identity politics, almost to the exclusion of other extremely important matters we should be focused upon.

In our workplaces, our community groups and our homes we still do need to continually improve the way we treat each other, but that should not stop us acknowledging how tolerant and inclusive we are as a nation, for the most part. Just last week I was at the Australian Islamic College, and the principal there was so proud of our local community. As he took me through the college and introduced me to some of the teachers and kids, he articulated how pleased he is and how pleased the community are that those kids will face exactly the same opportunities as the rest of our kids right across the nation. I'll put this very simply: I accept that we are not a perfect society and that we should continue to further reduce social, cultural and economic barriers, but, when I look at school and university curriculums and at media commentary, I assess we are focusing most of our bandwidth on negative introspection. This leaves almost no room for us to consider the problems and solutions that will enable us to maintain our liberal democratic existence.

What are some of these discussions that we really must have? Firstly, we can only ensure for our kids our high standard of living into the future if we are economically competitive globally. Ironically, we are endowed with immense natural resources, particularly, Mr Deputy Speaker Irons, in our home state, Western Australia. They include natural gas. We have an absolute abundance of the stuff. We are indeed on a pathway towards net zero emissions, and we are investing significantly in renewables and in hydrogen, but we do need to transition there. It's been perplexing that some state and territory governments have chosen to put bans on the exploration of natural gas and any other hydrocarbons, and therefore not also be able to tap into a healthy export market, whilst at the same time being happy to import coal fired power from neighbouring states.

Coronavirus has taught us that we do need to have sovereign production capability in key areas. There is also a strong appetite for local manufacturing. But, without cheap and reliable energy, we should forget about that. Our nation is working on sovereign capability and resilience. The 2021 budget paves the pathway to do just that, and a key element of that budget is the $270 billion we will be spending on defence in a world that is already less stable and more contested.

Last week I was joined by my good friend and our Western Australian colleague the assistant defence minister, Andrew Hastie, for a community forum. We had some hard-hitting questions from our attendees on defence readiness, manufacturing, geopolitical shifts and the importance of cybersecurity. It was heartening to see that our community is encouraged and confident that this Morrison government remains absolutely focused on defence as a priority.

It's also under the Morrison government that manufacturing is being prioritised, building sovereign capability whilst also putting cash in the hands of hardworking Australians and their businesses. Programs like our Modern Manufacturing Initiative are helping local manufacturers to integrate into global value chains. Even amidst this once-in-a-century pandemic and global recession the world is continuing to address climate change. Like the Prime Minister said, we need to focus on how we can prosper into this new net zero emissions economy without compromising resources, our manufacturing and our heavy industries, and without imposing higher costs on Australian families.

Australia is playing our part on climate change, having met our 2030 commitments and being on track to meet and beat our 2030 target. Emissions are 19 per cent lower now than 16 years ago. We've done more than countries like Canada, the US, Japan and New Zealand by taking practical, technology focused approaches to the way we work towards net zero with our goal being to get there by 2050 through technology and not taxes.

Through this budget, we are investing another $1.6 billion for priority technologies, including clean hydrogen and energy storage. We're also investing in six new carbon capture projects in Australia, which are reducing emissions while creating jobs. I'm sure, Deputy Speaker, you were as pleased as I was to hear from Chevron in our home state as to their carbon capture and storage project for the Gorgon LNG project off the north-west coast.

During the onset of COVID-19, the prompt introduction of JobKeeper, JobSeeker and JobTrainer all helped to save livelihoods and keep Australians in work and to keep Australian businesses up and running. In my own electorate of Stirling, for example, there were 5,800 businesses who tapped into JobKeeper, and that supported 23,000 workers. I still get feedback now, as I am sure you do, Deputy Speaker, about the positive impact of JobKeeper keeping Australians in jobs and businesses in business.

By March this year, there were 13.1 million Aussies in work—74,000 more than pre-COVID, making us the first major advanced nation to have more people employed now compared to pre-COVID. The JobTrainer Fund will also fund 450,000 new places to upskill jobseekers and our young people.

This government is investing heavily in the future of Australian workers and local businesses. Like all of us in this House, we are looking to the future. We are looking to what are the needs of a changed nation in a changed world, and this government, through our strong plan, as outlined in the budget, is making significant headway already on that path.

This investment is also being paired with the Australian fighting spirit, that same spirit that has helped us overcome fires and floods, cyclones, world wars and now, of course, this pandemic and the associated recession. But there is a critical third element. As individuals across this nation, we must think nationally, regionally and globally. We must think more broadly than within just our current frame of reference. We must reduce our negative introspection and we must enhance our focus on securing our collective future.