Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Sterle for the question and acknowledge that WA has some real opportunities under the Future Made in Australia policy. I know that people in Western Australia will be looking closely at the plans that the government has outlined in the budget. The Albanese government believes in planning for the future and creating opportunities for all Australians to benefit from the huge economic and energy transformation that the world is currently undertaking. The government's Future Made in Australia package is all about encouraging and facilitating the private sector investment required for Australia to succeed and become an indispensable part of that future global economy. A Future Made in Australia, as the Treasurer said yesterday, will maximise our geological, meteorological, geographical and geopolitical advantages, making more things here, creating secure, well-paid jobs and responding to the net zero transition that offers so many opportunities for all Australians. A Future Made in Australia will attract investment in renewable hydrogen, green metals, critical minerals, solar and batteries. It will make Australia a renewable energy superpower, it will strengthen economic resilience and security, it will back Australian innovation and science and it will invest in people and places where this transition will take place.

Our policy includes production tax credits for renewable hydrogen and processed critical minerals. It involves investment in the Australian Renewable Energy Agency that's been so successful despite the attempts to shut it down from those opposite. The Future Made in Australia innovation fund, the $1 billion Solar Sunshot and $500 million Battery Breakthrough Initiative, the quantum computing investment and a range of other reforms will accelerate approvals. We know that this country can be a renewable energy superpower—solar, wind, green hydrogen—and harness the cleaner and cheaper energy that can come from the power of a new generation of manufacturing.