Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance relating to jobs and economic recovery. Most people in this chamber will know me as someone who is quite expert at getting access to documents that the government doesn't really want us to see. So I'm going to have to call Senator Chisholm out and say that he's wrong that the government doesn't a plan, because I've managed to get hold of it, and I have it here. It's even got a plan B. There's nothing written on it—but, nonetheless, that's their plan! But, seriously, I think the government has done a reasonable job working its way through COVID. I'm not going to take anything away from the fact that there are mistakes and there are areas where we can do better. But that's a management function; it's not a leadership function.

We do need a plan laid out that basically tells us how the government intends to move forward over the next five to 10 years, because that's what it's going to take to recover from what's happened to us. Senator Van stood up and gave examples of spending money. Anyone can spend money. It's much harder to spend money wisely and in a targeted manner that seeks to do the very thing that Senator Chisholm suggests in this MPI—that is, to have a plan to create a number of jobs. I'd like to see something come out that says: 'We are going to direct government money locally for local economic benefit.' We should be using our procurement budget. We should be assisting companies with R&D so they can generate IP, not just to build things here but also to export. We should be building up our manufacturing base, not just for jobs but also for resilience—because that is something that we've learned out of COVID: that we fell short in that area. We also need to be doing value-add, not just exporting our rocks. There's multinational tax avoidance—another way to get money into this country. There are lots of things we can do. Please, put out the plan, a coherent plan, so we can see what you're going to do.