Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Acting Deputy President. Really, the Coalition are always doomsayers, always trying to play down the economy, always trying to say how bad it is that Labor is finally standing up for workers and for domestic manufacture in this country, somehow always playing the glass-half-empty approach. Why don't you come into this place and have a positive attitude about backing in Australian workers and Australian businesses, and let's give it a go together. Let's see some bipartisanship when it comes to manufacturing in this place. It is really, really concerning to see every time we try and put up a policy—one that we did take to the election, mind you; we did take this to the election, Senator Scarr. A bit of positivity will go a long way.

We saw that play out in the New South Wales election over the weekend. Chris Minns and his team very much took a fresh-start approach to restarting the economy in New South Wales, reinvesting in their manufacturing and investing in the people and the health and education sectors in New South Wales—and look what happened. The public backed in Labor. They backed in New South Wales Labor over a government that, quite frankly, was past its use-by date and was more interested in its own internals. But I'm not here to talk about the New South Wales election result, although I must say it was very hard not to drop that into my speech today, as well as Collingwood having a second win on the weekend. It's good to see that the Pies are finally back on top of the AFL ladder, but I'll put that to one side.

There's been a lot of commentary around the National Reconstruction Fund. This investment is expected to generate economic growth and boost productivity, which is why we are delivering this policy, and we know that's key to driving down inflation. We need to address the supply issues. Of course, the other way that the National Reconstruction Fund will actually help combat these pressures is by addressing the supply chain issues. We know that a lack of supply is driving up the cost of many of the inputs that are required across the economy, with these high input costs then rippling through producers and consumers. The fund will help address this lack of supply by improving our domestic capacity and insulating our economy from future supply shocks.

There has long been an argument made by government that it should play no role in picking winners, no role in guiding the industry and no role other than establishing guardrails, letting businesses to do the right thing and only stepping in when there has been market failure, as we've heard from some opposite. While those opposite do argue that we shouldn't be picking winners, the previous government spent almost a decade picking, unfortunately, some of these losers. We saw what happened when the car industry left this country, leaving many towns and communities in the lurch. The destructive ripple effect that that had through local economies cannot be overstated. The lasting impact on our ability to manufacture advanced products in this country is still being felt.

Passing this bill is a step forward in revitalising the industry after the damage that was caused. Let's all work together in this place. Let's all get together and support and rejuvenate the manufacturing industry in this country. Let's improve our sovereign capability across key areas. Let's reduce our reliance on fragile and uncertain international supply chains. I urge everyone this chamber, particularly the National Party, who say that they support regional Australia, to support this bill, and let's support the revival of manufacturing, support regional employment and support a future made here in Australia.