Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McLachlan for a very good question. The government launched its $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy as part of the 2020-21 budget. It is a key feature of our JobMaker Plan designed to harness Australia's manufacturing capability, drive our economic recovery and ensure future resilience. It's all about jobs and using the best Australian science and technology to scale up our manufacturing businesses for the long term.

Delivery of the strategy is on track and it is well advanced. In fact, on Friday the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology visited a great local business, Skykraft, to launch the $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative and the first of our detailed industry road maps which have been developed by government in partnership with industry and will inform our grant delivery.

The first sector to be rolled out is the space sector, and our other five priority sectors will be launched in the coming weeks. Businesses in the space sector can now apply for grants in two of the three streams of the initiative. These two streams are designed to help businesses translate their great ideas into commercial outcomes and to support projects that integrate Australian businesses into global supply chains. For these two streams, the translation and integration streams, the Commonwealth will cover up to 50 per cent of the project costs. This initiative is all about scaling up manufacturing to grow jobs, so the minimum grant will be $1 million. This is matched funding because we believe industry has to have skin in the game.

I'm also pleased to advise that the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund, our stream to help SMEs improve their production, is also well underway, with grants of between $100,000 and $1 million available. More than 500 applications had been received when the round closed last month. They are currently being assessed and we expect the successful applicants will start to receive their funding this financial year.