Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection from the expert on the other side, Senator Scarr, who talks about debt. Isn't that interesting? He doesn't want debt associated with a fund that's about investment, but he's happy with debt that's associated with a tax break for people with $3 million in super. There you go. Thank you for being very clear about your political priorities. He's entitled to those views. I don't think they're the views that most Australians share.

But I return to the question. Thanks to a decade of neglect and failed policies from the Liberals and Nationals, we do not have the manufacturing capacity to do what we need to do and we saw that during the COVID pandemic. We couldn't make enough PPE to protect ourselves. Our fund is about building a more resilient, more diversified economy with more jobs in regional Australia so we don't have to rely so much on other countries for some of our critical supplies and to ensure we have the jobs and skills we need for the future. (Time expired)