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

My question is to the Minister for Industry and Science. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to support Australian manufacturers to grow and to commercialise their ideas after a decade of neglect?

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the member for Bendigo, who is another champion of regional manufacturing and who knows that Australians want their nation to be a place that makes things, because a country that makes things makes great jobs—secure, well-paying jobs across our suburbs and across our regions. The Labor government recognises and believes in a future made in Australia, but it will take a lot of work to achieve that vision.

Today a new report was released by Industry Innovation and Science Australia. The report found that we need to scale up our businesses to help rebuild manufacturing. The report also shows that the government has inherited a shrinking middle band of businesses. The proportion of medium-sized businesses in manufacturing has declined by close to 40 per cent in the last 14 years, and that's why the government's taking action to help businesses that want to grow and scale up.

Our government's $392 million Industry Growth Program, announced in the budget, has kicked off officially today. As of today, businesses will be able to apply for expert advice on getting their good ideas to market and expanding their companies. Future rounds of the program will also deliver matched grant funding, ranging from $50,000 to $5 million to give businesses the capital they need to grow, and it'll provide a pipeline of medium-sized businesses who can access the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund.

There was a reference to a decade of neglect, and, boy, have we got a lot to work with there! The Liberals and Nationals came to office looking down their noses at Australian manufacturing. They hounded car manufacturers out of the country. Under their watch, we ended up with some of the lowest manufacturing self-sufficiency in the OECD, and today's report shows a contraction in the number of mid-sized manufacturers. After all that, the coalition scrambled, recognising the grave error of their ways. They announced in October 2020 a $1.5 billion manufacturing grants program, and guess when 85 per cent of those grants were announced: in the weeks leading into the 2022 federal election. The coalition are always there to manufacture a headline but never there to back Australian manufacturing, and this continues today, as they have refused to back the National Reconstruction Fund and energy price relief that would have helped manufacturers.

I'll take the interjection. Thank you so much for that. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition was a member of a government that said EVs would ruin and end the weekend but now supports the manufacture of the charging equipment of the cars they don't want on the roads. This is the confused state of support for manufacturing by those opposite, and Australian manufacturing deserves better than that. (Time expired)