Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Ciccone. More jobs, more exports, more opportunities and a better bottom line for regional Australia—who wouldn't want that? Unfortunately, quite a few of those members opposite, it seems, are anti-manufacturing and anti-jobs. Whether it's Mr Dutton or Mr Littleproud, or the Liberals and the Nationals here in the Senate, the coalition only want to say no to this fund. More manufacturing in our regions? No. More value-adding in agriculture? No. More tax concessions for the top 0.5 per cent? Oh, yes!

I am surprised that the Nationals, in particular, are opposing the National Reconstruction Fund. Not only does it contain the word 'national' but in the past they've claimed to support Aussie manufacturing. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that Senator Canavan was saying, 'We've all seen during the coronavirus how important it is to have industries that can produce things in the medical field, to keep our food production and food security going, and after coronavirus we're going to need to have a strong manufacturing industry to recover.' Senator Canavan, have I got a solution for you— (Time expired)