Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Australian manufacturers continue to be significantly impacted by the cost-of-living crisis;

(b) the Government still has no plan to tackle inflationary pressures contributing to the rising input costs of manufacturers, with no plans to address:

(i) rising power prices;

(ii) rising interest rates;

(iii) damaging labour shortages; and

(iv) disrupted supply chains; and

(c) the National Reconstruction Fund has not issued a single dollar to our manufacturers and will have a contributory impact on inflation; and

(2) calls on the Government to reveal when the National Reconstruction Fund will make its first investment.

It hasn't been easy since Labor was elected. Yesterday, 21 May, marked the first-year anniversary of Labor coming into government. Families and small businesses are feeling the pinch now more than ever. Spiralling costs in energy, workforce shortages and the supply chain crisis are pushing businesses to the brink.

In last week's budget, the government wasted an opportunity to home in on the issues directly affecting business and middle Australia. Australians waited with bated breath in hope of some relief from the cost-of-living pressures. Millions of Australians were left disappointed with a budget that will spend an additional $185 billion while middle-income Australians won't receive any relief from the strain they're under. During a housing crisis, Labor plans to increase migration by 1.5 million people by 2027. That's more than nine times the population of my electorate of Capricornia. With Queensland's vacancy rate sitting at an extremely tight 0.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year, even more families will be forced onto the street to sleep in their cars or tents. New data released by the Housing Industry Association last Thursday has revealed construction of new dwellings has slowed significantly. The great Australian dream of owning your own home is quickly turning into a nightmare as young Australians wake up to the realisation that they may never have the opportunity to own their home under a Labor government.

This government's policies are causing inflation to stay higher for longer, continuing to put pressure on interest rates. Our core inflation is now higher than every other major advanced economy. There have been no fewer than 10 interest rate rises under this government. It's not just the housing and rental crisis that's also feeling the pinch; energy prices have never been higher since the Labor government was elected a year ago. Electricity prices are skyrocketing and are expected to go up by more than $500. The Albanese government has failed to deliver on its promised electricity price relief—a promise the Prime Minister mentioned 97 times on his campaign trail. Those opposite only have a plan for meeting climate targets, not ensuring our energy remains reliable.

These targets in the establishment of renewable energy projects are going to hit the hip pocket of the everyday Australian. To meet the minister for the environment's 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2032 will require 22,000 solar panels to be installed every day and 40 wind turbines to be erected every month between now and 2030. To distribute this renewable energy, more than $100 billion needs to be spent on the 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines. These poles and lines will run through prime farming land, pristine national parks and suburbs right across the country. The sites for these projects are completely inappropriate. This is going to be hugely detrimental to the environment and also to the budgets of families and businesses as costs to achieve this renewable energy push will be passed on to the consumer.

Reckless policy interventions into the energy market have stalled gas supplies, bringing with that skyrocketing prices impacting every aspect of production. This is adding to the costs along supply chain from the producer to the checkout. The manufacturing industry is one of the biggest consumers of energy in the country. High-energy-using businesses are going to be slapped with substantial hikes in power prices. Two hundred and twelve of Australia's largest manufacturing businesses will be hit with Labor's safeguard mechanism carbon tax, putting more jobs at risk through a poor piece of climate change policy aimed at punishing the engine room of our economy. The very businesses who brought this government a $4 billion surplus are being punished. Labor has no plan for improving this industry to allow for the growth of jobs and the economy in the manufacturing sector.

Despite promising over and over again that their National Reconstruction Fund would reinvigorate manufacturing in Australia, there was next to nothing in the budget to roll out this program. A year has been lost for manufacturers while this government delays crucial support for the industry. Labor halted the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, aimed at supporting and growing the industry. Not one cent has been delivered through the National Reconstruction Fund to date. Under the former Rudd-Gillard Labor government, manufacturing contribution to GDP fell by $7 billion, and 6,800 manufacturing businesses closed their doors. It seems that, under the Albanese government, the manufacturing industry is set to go the same way.

This government must address the critical issues affecting the manufacturing sector through policies that create strong economic conditions. This past year has formed the question: are we better off now under a Labor government than we were 12 months ago?

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

BURNELL () (): I must say, the second-worst part of budget week has definitely got to be the fact that no private members' business was scheduled, as the House didn't meet on Monday. The worst part, of course, is listening to the hollow pontification of the Leader of the Opposition's budget reply speech. But my remarks on that are best saved for another time.

Today I'm joining my colleagues—fellow members of the class of '22—the member for Swan and the member for Hunter in speaking against the motion by the member for Capricornia. For what it's worth, we should remind the House that this is a motion moved by the shadow assistant minister for manufacturing. Manufacturing is immensely important to me as well. It's important to Spence. It is the industry that was positioned around the establishment and growth of Adelaide's northern suburbs. Spence has the seventh-highest percentage of manufacturing business within it—manufacturing for a vast number of industries, from defence to clean energy. But what Spence doesn't manufacture en masse anymore like we used to are cars, and we again have those opposite to thank for that. By virtue of the shadow assistant ministry held by the member for Capricornia, one would of course expect to see a voluminous motion—a treatise, if you will—explaining the coalition's policies when it comes to manufacturing, to energy, to interest rates and to Labor's supply shortages. Alas, this is certainly not an opposition with a plan—not a positive policy in sight.

What we have here instead is an opposition of 100 negative hollow statements, begging questions which serve as a subtext for the ultimate question; when are the worst days of opposition finally going to be behind them? Not today. It will be when those opposite can finally divorce themselves from the record of their former government—not just the Abbott years but the Turnbull years, and let's not forget the Morrison years, too, although we should not forget them entirely, lest we are doomed to repeat them.

The motion moved by the member for Capricornia sets itself out to be either coyly naive or legitimately oblivious of what the Albanese Labor government has done in this past year to move our country forward in this space. As with a breakfast at an inner-city cafe, I shall be attempting to deconstruct the motion by the member for Capricornia as I plate it up for the chamber on this fine evening. Those opposite are making an audacious leap in logic by attempting to contend that the government has no plans to combat any of the issues faced by a number of manufacturers which have been listed in the motion. Whether it be power prices, labour shortages or disruptions to supply chains, I can vividly recall the member for Capricornia voting against the Albanese Labor government's energy plan, voting against the safeguard mechanism, and voting against the Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill, just a short time ago. Yet the member for Capricornia attempts to say that the government has no plans.

The member's motion moves on to the National Reconstruction Fund—don't even get me started. This is another piece of legislation that the member and those opposite voted against. In fact, the NRF passed in spite of the member for Capricornia, in spite of the member for Hinkler and in spite of the member for McMillan. As the record reflects, the National Reconstruction Fund Bill received assent on the 11 April this year. On 9 May, what did we get from the member the Capricornia? We got a motion pondering why the fund has not yet issued a single dollar to manufacturers. Am I surprised by this? Absolutely not. I'm not even slightly surprised by this stance, as those opposite are scions of a former government renowned for its colour-coded spreadsheets. That's why I'm not surprised about their air of confusion about why an independent Commonwealth corporate entity that is not yet a month old in the statute books hasn't started financing projects. But of course, as the member's motion notes, if it had done so, she has severe reservations as to the inflationary effect that any funding would cause—just as an aside.

That mindset is just part and parcel of the former government's reluctance to support manufacturing in Australia. It seriously took a once-in-a-generation—hopefully—pandemic for those opposite to think to themselves, 'Oh golly: maybe it might be a good idea if we made things here in Australia again' and start to unwind the damage they've caused to the industry. One of the most important elements of good government is having a good opposition, and all I can say to the member for Capricornia, to those opposite, is: do better.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm about to give you a hot tip, Madam Deputy Speaker Chesters. No matter who is in government, whether it's Labor or whether it's the coalition, and no matter what the situation is—whether it's a hung parliament or whether there are difficulties in the Senate—the fundamentals of business simply do not change. They don't change. It doesn't matter whether you are in manufacturing, agriculture, resources or anything else, the fundamentals are these: confidence—that is everything—affordable electricity and gas; affordable and reliable energy; the ability to actually secure critical staff that you need to make your business run; and a willingness to put your house on the line and risk everything to be in small business, make a difference and actually deliver something.

Right now this Labor government is destroying every single section that is needed for business to be successful. They have intervened in the electricity market. I've never seen anything like this. It is quite extraordinary. There is a cap on gas prices. There is a cap on people who have invested tens of billions of dollars in this country to develop an industry that simply didn't exist, and the Labor government has moved the goalposts. Not only has it moved them; it has thrown them into the ocean. You have the Japanese ambassador saying that in Australia there is now sovereign risk for investment. That is absolutely unheard of. We saw in media reports in the last 24 hours that the Prime Minister had to meet with the Japanese Prime Minister to try to ensure that Japan were confident that our resources would continue to flow under the existing contracts that they've had for decades. For decades in this country, they have been delivering jobs and investments for Australians.

Throughout the COVID period we managed to ensure that the reputation of this country continued as a reliable supplier for energy and resources for places like Japan. Without Australia's coal, energy and gas, they would've closed down. It would've been absolute anarchy. It is the same in South Korea and a lot of our other key markets. If you want to have manufacturing in this country, then, quite simply, these are the things that matter. Who in their right mind will invest in this country, knowing that a Labor government will pull the rug out from under them after they've invested, after they've put significant money on the line, after they've come to this nation and actually built an industry that we need.

What we have seen is the Minister for the Environment and Water knock out two coal mines and then celebrate. Admittedly, one was approved in the last seven days, but it's one which is for coking coal, and you do need to make steel. That's a fundamental if you want to be in manufacturing.

What we see are interventions around gas prices and electricity prices, and we see moving policies. All of these things absolutely destroy confidence. Then comes the Safeguard Mechanism, another job-destroying policy from this Labor government for which there is no real solution. If you are an industry in the top 200, how on earth do you offset your carbon emissions for an existing facility if you cannot invest to make any changes? There was a report from the CSIRO late in the year last year which outlined very clearly what the existing protocols could potentially deliver inside offsets for carbon farming. You could shift 100 million hectares of Australian agriculture and you wouldn't touch the sides of what is required by the Safeguard Mechanism under this Labor government. There's only 420 million hectares, and guess what? It produces food. Now, we kind of need food. We are a big exporter. Some $70 billion to $80 billion is the target I'd expect this year for agricultural exports. It is absolutely essential not only to Australia's productivity; it's also part of our psyche. We're an agricultural country. The idea that you would shift hundreds of millions of hectares of ag production to carbon offsets and let them go to weeds and feral pigs and dogs and have no employment is the absolute opposite of what a government should be doing.

You cannot simply wander around telling international investors that these policies are fantastic, that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, but that they can't actually be delivered. The only way that the CSIRO identified that had any potential was carbon capture and storage, and guess what? The federal Labor government has rubbed that out. That's not something that Minister Bowen wants to support, yet it could produce gigatonnes of storage, according to the CSIRO. That actually works. Imagine that—a policy that works! So what we continue to see when it comes to manufacturing is a tax on confidence. It's a tax on policy stability. It's a tax on the ability to invest and actually secure funding. These are all the things that every business needs to be successful—in fact, to start and to survive and to remain.

Now, the people to whom I talk may well want to be out there employing more people, but they simply do not have the confidence to do that, and under this Labor government I expect that will continue, because they cannot pay their bills, particularly their power bills.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the very important topic of manufacturing. Right now it is tough for a lot of Aussies. Interest rates continue to go up, the cost of living is continuing to get higher, and these same pressures are making things difficult for our manufacturing sector too. A strong Australia needs a strong manufacturing sector. It is no secret that our manufacturing sector is not as strong as it once was. The Hunter knows this well. Just up the road in Newcastle is one of the biggest steel manufacturing plants in the country, the BHP steelworks. This gave jobs to many people in my electorate. It closed in 1999, and who was the government then? Those opposite.

Like me, those who worked in the car manufacturing industry also know all too well the struggle of manufacturing in this country. It does not take a genius to figure out who was in government when the last car manufacturer in this country closed down. That is right; it was those opposite—again. There appears to be a pattern here. Whenever the decline of manufacturing sector is o brought up, those opposite are associated with it. They then have the tenacity to stand in this place and make pathetic and untrue claims that this government is doing nothing to help the manufacturing sector. Well, it may be difficult to rebuild the manufacturing sector as quickly as those opposite knocked it down, but we will certainly try.

This is a government who passed a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, and those on the other side of the chamber—the no-alition—unsurprisingly, as they always do, said no. So do not claim that you care about manufacturing when you oppose a multibillion-dollar fund aimed at building manufacturing again in this country. Those opposite would rather oppose for opposition's sake and see manufacturing continue to decline than vote with the government, because it might mean admitting that we are doing something right. That is childish, playground like behaviour but, luckily, the adults are now in government.

My electorate of the Hunter has always been a powerhouse for our state and it is this government that is making sure that my electorate will remain a powerhouse of New South Wales for decades to come. Ten long years of insecurity and indecisions on energy policy cast some doubt on the future of power generation in the Hunter. But this Labor government is making sure that jobs in the energy sector are created right where they should be—in the place that has always kept the lights on for New South Wales—the mighty Hunter.

The National Reconstruction Fund is making this possible. Just in case you have forgotten, those who you can probably hear having a whinge oppose this. If they had their way, energy generation in the Hunter would be making zero progress, stuck the behind indecision and ideological roadblocks. But the fund will provide opportunities for Australians, especially the Hunter, in a broad range of areas. This fund will help our resources sector, a sector I am proud to champion and a sector which the Hunter region was built on. Because of this fund, manufacturing is already looking at coming to the Hunter with Energy Renaissance building their first gigawatt factory just outside the Hunter, making our region home to lithium ion battery manufacture. This is just the beginning. This fund will create opportunities in the forestry and fisheries sector, the transport sector, medical science, renewables, low-emissions technology and also in defence. No matter where your skill set lies, job opportunities will be created for you and underpinning every single one of those sectors is manufacturing.

We know things are tough for Australians and we know that this does not make it easy for our manufacturers. But despite what is being said by those opposite, we are getting on with the job of creating jobs and helping to encourage manufacturing in this country. We passed the National Reconstruction Fund, and I have no doubt that this fund will be pivotal in reconstructing our nation and all that has crumbled underneath the previous government, especially in the manufacturing sector.

This motion is nothing other than a political play by a desperate opposition, who are trying to distract from the fact that the reason we need a reconstruction fund is because of their lazy attempt to govern this country.

Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have had a bit of a giggle around what has been proposed today by the government. The member for Kennedy and I have been around for long enough to know that the issues around manufacturing and the policies around manufacturing have been a contest for every government that has come to power. And mostly, as the member for Kennedy knows, for a lot of our manufacturing we try to get governments involved in to push in one direction or push in another direction. I was here for the Button plan all those years ago. That was meant to work on behalf of the car manufacturers, but we were being pushed by what was happening around the world, not by what was happening here in Australia. We can fund aluminium production in western Victoria, but it's at a huge cost to the Victorian government and a huge cost to taxpayers.

I don't know whether we chase manufacturing like that, but it does create jobs within communities and it does give opportunities for people to have a lifestyle they wouldn't otherwise have. But, importantly, we know that it doesn't matter how governments come along and push and shape and pull, the great tragedy—and I would agree with one of the members who mentioned this a minute ago—is that we lost our car industry, especially when I know that the Germans subsidise their car industry at a much higher level than we ever did. There's a difference though. They own their car industry. They are German manufacturers. They are German companies. Ours were a Japanese company in Nissan, a Japanese company in Toyota, an American company and—you're all too young to remember this—English companies in Leyland and Austin and all of those who went before them. I know these things. I love cars. I'm interested in cars. I'm interested in manufacturing in this country.

I understand what the member for Hinkler said when he said, 'You can't have manufacturing unless you have really competitive energy prices,' which is exactly what Victoria was built on all those years ago. It was built on the power that came out of part of my electorate in La Trobe Valley. It powered a nation under the Bolte government and was the largest manufacturing sector in Australia in Victoria.

The world changed that. We didn't change that. The manufacturing of footwear and clothing moved from this country to another, because they did it so much cheaper than we did. The Japanese started to produce fabrics and we were unable to compete with them here. The Egyptians started to produce wool that we weren't able to competitively do here. All of a sudden, your lambswool jumpers that were made in Australia were too dear; they could be imported for half the price. So our own retailers and wholesalers went straight to the Chinese and said, 'You do this for us,' to the Japanese, 'You do this for us,' to the Egyptians and the English, 'You do this for us.' The English were having their tweeds made in Egypt! I have proof of this, because I was there—as I was watching it go through the machines in Egypt, it had 'Made in England' written on the side of the fabric! So we think we're buying something that's literally woven and manufactured in England, and we're getting the opposite—we're getting something that's done in Egypt.

We now live in a world where the input into manufacturing goods and services comes from all over the world. It doesn't come from just one spot. There was a great food manufacturer named Heinz in my community, and I said to them: 'Where do you source all this? Do you source all this cheese locally?' They said, 'No, that came from Belgium, and that came from—' wherever they can get it the cheapest.

I say to you: be considerate and don't go back to every government for the last 10 years and say you were the worst government in history when it came to manufacturing, because that's just not the truth. Every government that I've seen in power in this country wants the jobs and opportunities that are presented by manufacturing here in Australia. I want to see the government succeed in manufacturing so there are jobs on the ground for people, there are opportunities to educate their children and there are opportunities for those who worked in manufacturing for a long time to grow old gracefully.

Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Monash. I agree with you that we need to support manufacturing, and the best way that that could happen is by supporting the National Reconstruction Fund, so I urge you to support it in the House. I also thank the member for Capricornia for giving me another opportunity to talk about the Albanese Labor government's record on supporting Australian manufacturing. I'm particularly proud to speak about this as an engineer that has worked in industry. I note that I'm speaking after the member for Hunter, who is a metalworker trained as a toolmaker and is a fitter and turner. This government has committed $15 billion towards the establishment of a National Reconstruction Fund. This includes $61 million this financial year to support the establishment and oversight of the fund. This is the biggest investment in Australian manufacturing since World War II. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Contained within this investment is $3 billion for renewables and low-emissions technology. The thing that I would highlight from our energy perspective is that the lowest unit cost of energy that we have in Australia at the moment is renewable energy. This is something that this government understands. The $3 billion for renewables and low-emission technology includes areas like clean-energy component manufacturing and technologies that improve energy efficiency. This will help to deliver more affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy to Australian industry over the long term.

Australian industry wants energy market certainty and support in its transition towards a clean renewable energy economy. Under the previous government there were 30 attempts at an energy policy and not one was put into action effectively. So if the member for Capricornia wants to talk about supporting manufacturing, she should look at the last decade to see what the government had a handbrake on. Our government are being deliberate and considerate in the rollout of this landmark policy. Rushing money out without due diligence is how we ended up with sport rorts. It's how we ended up with the Badgerys Creek airport fiasco, where the Commonwealth paid an astounding $29.8 million for land that was valued at $3 million. Rushing major policy for political gain is how we ended up with colour-coded spreadsheets under the previous government. We're working with urgency, but we are also talking about $15 billion of taxpayer dollars. This is why we're also working with industry, communities and workers to make sure that we get the National Reconstruction Fund right—and industry is appreciative. Let me quote from the Australian Aluminium Council:

The key pathway to enabling new economy industries will be to leverage the capability in the regions of our existing industry. A circular economy and domestic focus for industry policy will maximise the value of these new industries.

The NRF is one part of the solution.

Labor has a vision for industry. We also have a vision for good, forward-thinking, well-paid, blue-collar jobs in Australia. This vision will also provide our country with the sovereign capability necessary to insulate against supply shocks. We also talk about inflation, which right now is a global issue, and we can see that it has been caused by external supply shocks resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is not something this government shies away from, and we know that this is a confronting issue for households, businesses and industry. We knew that, under the previous government, when inflation jumped up by 2.1 per cent in the March 2022 quarter, this was the greatest increase in inflation in decades.

But I know that investing in Australian domestic manufacturing capacity is deflationary. It's about improving productivity and it means that, should a dictator decide to illegally invade their neighbour, the impact this has on prices will be reduced. Productivity is really important, and the truth is that, under the previous government, productivity of the economy was not looked at. If there had been foresight by the previous government on energy and manufacturing, the pain that household businesses and industries are feeling today would have been reduced. Instead, they got announcements without substance from—was it nine or 11 industry ministers? I cannot remember.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.