James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison government's plan for a stronger future strengthens Australia's sovereign manufacturing capabilities and secures supply chains?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Sturt for his question and his steadfast commitment to manufacturing in this country and in his electorate. Over 5,100 people in his electorate are working in the manufacturing sector, and he knows how important a sovereign manufacturing capability is to this country. It gives us a stronger economy and a stronger future.

This budget has backed in an additional $1 billion of funding for Australian manufacturing. That's $750 million in the Modern Manufacturing Initiative and $200 million for supply chain resilience to make sure we have the products we need when we need it, as we did with AdBlue just before Christmas; it is now largely manufactured in this country to keep the wheels of industry and our heavy vehicles moving.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chifley is warned.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That builds on the more than $925 million of dollars of funding that we have committed to specific initiatives under the Modern Manufacturing Strategy—investments that are driving new manufacturing activity, jobs and investment across this great country; investments that are critical to producing the materials we need where we need them and when we need them.

The space sector is one of our national manufacturing priorities; it offers enormous opportunity for Australia. We use it every day here in Australia, navigating in our cars, using our phones. Our farmers use it to guide their headers and their tractors and to monitor their crops, and emergency workers use it as well to do their work every day. We are making significant investment in the space manufacturing sector, including $20 million to establish the Australian space manufacturing hub in South Australia, which will create 1,300 jobs. We are also investing alongside Gilmour Space Technologies on the Gold coast. It's a local manufacturer using cutting-edge, world-beating technology, and they're expecting to get their first commercial payload into orbit later this year. I was with them on the Gold Coast just last week. We are investing $52 million alongside them, and it's expected to create 850 jobs, including 350 jobs for local engineers and tradies. As was said by the CEO and founder Adam Gilmour—we saw his brother, James, as well—the space industry has asked for help from the federal government, and the federal government has responded. That is fantastic. Projects like this are how we drive a stronger economy, a stronger future for this country and stronger Australian manufacturing at its core.