Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry and Science. How is the Albanese Labor government backing Australian businesses to secure a future made in Australia, and what approaches has the government rejected?

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

Thanks to the member for Makin. He knows that great Aussie ideas lead to great products and great, secure, well-paying jobs. We know the right support at the right time for emerging Australian manufacturers is crucial to securing those jobs. Our $400 million Industry Growth Program is setting us up for a future made in Australia by doing exactly that. There's the $3.1 million that the IGP is providing for Seed Terminator, a family business in Adelaide which is looking to expand its exports. The brainchild of a South Australian engineer, Nick Berry, Seed Terminator's harvester attachment smashes 99 per cent of weed seeds—chemical-free—dramatically increasing crop efficiency. Then there is the $4.3 million the IGP is providing in support of Cauldron Molecules, in the electorate of Calare, to scale-up their world-leading hyper-fermentation demonstration facility to full industrial production. As co-founder Michele Stansfield says, critical support helps position Australia as a global leader in biomanufacturing, tapping into a $700 billion global market. Backing Aussie knowhow to make more things here, create more secure, well paid regional jobs—that's our approach.

I'm asked if there are any approaches that have been rejected: the coalition have offered those approaches in spades, and they're all awful. Their approach, weighed down by a shameful legacy, was driving out manufacturers in jobs while in government, and then refusing to back anything to strengthen manufacturers while in opposition. In their frenzied rush to talk down manufacturing, the mouths are working; not so much the brains. I'll give a few examples from our Future Made in Australia Bill and the debate around it. The member for Sturt declared, 'We are not the party of picking winners,' yet he was in the government that invested billions to bring Moderna and mRNA manufacturing to Australia. The member for Groom asked, 'Do we choose to be directed more firmly by the government or do we allow the invisible hand to make its way?'—the same invisible hand that, brick by brick, will magically build the nuclear power plants funded entirely by taxpayer dollars. The member for Mitchell, fresh from dusting a Milton Friedman statue, levered off his philosophical manner to warn that Milton Friedman spoke about the misallocation of government capital and the increase in government spending—perhaps he penned that dire warning about misallocating government capital in a commuter car park that was built nowhere near a train station! Great work!

Strong manufacturing delivers a strong economy. The coalition might not believe it—we do and we will fight for it.