Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a revised explanatory memorandum related to the bills and move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA BILL 2024

Today I am proud to introduce the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024.

This Bill is a major step in implementing the Albanese Labor Government's Future Made in Australia agenda, to deliver our country's next generation of prosperity.

It brings us closer to our vision for a prosperous future for all Australians -

And helps us secure Australia's place in a shifting global economic and strategic landscape -

On the back of the global transition to net zero.

The world is changing and the pace of that change is accelerating as the planet moves to a future powered by cheaper, cleaner energy.

As the Prime Minister has said, this change means we are in the middle of the biggest transformation in the global economy since the industrial revolution.

At the same time geostrategic competition is growing.

The international rules-based order is under constant pressure.

Population demographics are shifting.

And the risk of major supply shocks is rising.

Amidst this churn and change our path to prosperity is clear.

Australia has been dealt the most incredible set of cards to make ourselves the primary beneficiaries of the net zero economy.

We have a unique combination of geological, meteorological, geographical and geopolitical comparative advantages—

And we know it would be an egregious breach of our generational responsibilities as a Government if we didn't play this winning hand.

This Bill is all about realising our genuine advantages—

And recognising our future growth prospects lie at the intersection of our industrial, resources, skills and energy bases and our attractiveness as an investment destination—

So we can grasp the jobs and opportunities of the energy transition.

The world is moving on and Australia needs to move with it.

Because if we get stuck in the past, this country will be poorer

It will be more vulnerable -

And we won't make the most of the golden opportunity in front of us.

Our Future Made in Australia agenda responds to this.

Our goal here is to power the future, not manufacture the past.

Our strategy is to engage and invest not retreat and protect.

Our emphasis is on attracting private investment, not replacing it.

To prosper from change, not just protect ourselves from it.

And the Bill I'm introducing today is putting this plan into practice—

To help make Australia a renewable energy superpower, and an indispensable part of the global net zero economy.

To more closely align our national security and economic security interests.

To modernise and strengthen our economy, in a world built on cheaper and cleaner energy.

To grab the vast industrial and economic opportunities from the world's shift to net zero.

And share the benefits of those opportunities with every Australian.

We know that to succeed our plan must be underpinned by discipline and rigour.

That's what this legislation is about.

This Bill embeds into law the strict criteria and robust processes that will guide our decision-making and set us up for success.

To help give investors the clarity and certainty they need to invest and unlock growth in our economy.

It's about ensuring public investment is prudent and powerful.

Public investment that pulls in substantial private investment and guides it towards Australia's national interest.

The legislation is built on three pillars.

First, a National Interest Framework, which will help us identify sectors where we have a sustained comparative advantage in the new net zero economy, or an economic resilience and security imperative to invest.

Second, a robust sector assessment process to help us better understand and break down barriers to private investment in key areas of the economy.

And third, a set of Community Benefit Principles that will ensure public investment and the private investment it generates lead to strong returns and stronger communities.

The three pillars will work together to help us build a more diversified and more resilient economy powered by renewable energy.

The Framework helps determine our investment direction—

The Treasury-led sector assessments will help us identify and address the barriers to attracting the private capital we need—

And the principles will make sure the benefits flow to communities, workers and businesses around the country.

The National Interest Framework outlines criteria to assess sectors against—

To determine where it is in Australia's national interest to unlock private investment at scale.

It has an economic security and resilience stream, where domestic sovereign capability is necessary to protect our national security interests or ensure our economy is sufficiently resilient to shocks.

And a net zero transformation stream, where industries support global decarbonisation, and there is a reasonable prospect of a sustained comparative advantage.

We've already put the Framework into action.

It informed our Future Made in Australia investment focus in the Budget—

On refining and processing critical minerals, producing renewable hydrogen, exploring production of green metals and low carbon liquid fuels, and supporting targeted manufacturing of clean energy technologies including solar, and value adding in the battery supply chain.

This Bill will enshrine the Framework into law.

The Framework will be supported by transparent, Treasury-led analysis of the extent that sectors align with the National Interest Framework.

The Bill empowers the Government to direct Treasury to undertake independent assessments—

And these assessments will be tabled in Parliament to support transparency and rigorous decision-making and help deliver value for money.

Public investment will be an important and substantial part of our plan.

But it is only a sliver of the private investment needed to transform our economy.

The most important role for public investment will be to unlock the vast amount of private sector investment we will need to deploy—

An additional $225 billion by 2050 to transition the energy system and realise net zero opportunities in heavy industries, by one estimate.

And the Framework and the sector assessments will be instrumental here—

Identifying the barriers to private investment and opportunities to address them—

Informed by Treasury's expert analysis and evidence-based assessments, on top of their normal policy advice.

Helping private investors to make considered investment decisions, confident that they know where the Government stands.

The Bill will also outline a series of Community Benefit Principles.

Because we know just pumping capital into the transformation won't be enough if we don't pay attention to how we deploy it.

The principles will ensure our investments:

Promote safe, secure, well-paid jobs with good conditions -

Develop skilled, inclusive workforces -

Take a collaborative approach to engaging local communities, like First Nations communities and communities directly affected by the transition to net zero -

Supporting First Nations communities and traditional owners to participate in, and share in the benefits of, the transition to net zero -

Strengthen domestic industrial capabilities and our local supply chains -

And demonstrate transparency and compliance with Australia's tax system.

They'll be applied on a program-by-program basis, recognising the different contexts and opportunities of these investments—

Including through Future Made in Australia Plans, a new tool to support broader community benefits so they are delivered in a way that is a fit-for-purpose and project-specific.

These principles will be our lodestar to help ensure our people and our economy are the primary beneficiaries of change.

And we will consult on the details of how the principles and plans will be put into practice.

Our $22.7 billion Budget investment demonstrates our commitment to this agenda.

But it's only a fraction of what we need.

Public investment will show us the path to a Future Made in Australia but private capital will pave the way.

That's why our Future Made in Australia agenda is an investment strategy and a growth strategy.

To provide investors with the clarity, certainty and the cooperation they need.

And this Bill embeds the discipline and rigour to make it succeed.

The time to act is now.

The world is changing with or without Australia.

The golden opportunity in front of us will start shrinking if we take any longer.

We've already suffered through a decade of delay and denial under those opposite.

And if they had their way, we'd have another wasted decade ahead, down a nuclear road to nowhere.

We have a chosen a better path.

A path to prosperity.

A path that is mainstream and middle of the road.

A path that reflects the new economic orthodoxy of a churning and changing world.

A path backed by evidence and supported by science.

A path that will be rigorously interrogated and transparently explained.

A path that uplifts all Australians, not just some.

A path that leads to a future made right here in Australia.

Full details of the measure are contained in the Explanatory Memorandum.

FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA (OMNIBUS AMENDMENTS NO. 1) BILL 2024

Today, I am proud to introduce the Future Made in Australia (Omnibus Amendments No. 1) Bill.

This Bill steps out how we will put the discipline and rigour established under the Future Made in Australia Bill into practice—

By expanding the roles of Export Finance Australia and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency so they can make investments consistent with our National Interest Framework.

To empower these agencies to help meet our Future Made in Australia goals—

To attract and facilitate more private sector investment -

And ensure private capital is deployed in the national interest.

The Bill contains two Schedules.

The first will allow the Government to make investments through Export Finance Australia in a way that's aligned with the National Interest Framework.

The changes in the Bill mean Export Finance Australia will be able to support a broader range of domestic transactions aligned with our National Interest Framework.

Export Finance Australia can already invest domestically in support of Australia's exports.

It's playing a pivotal role in growing Australia's vital critical minerals industry—

Overseeing the Government's $840 million investment to build Australia's first combined rare earths mine and refinery in the Northern Territory—

And building domestic capabilities like quantum computing that will unlock future industries for Australia.

This change will expand that role even more.

Projects coming forward for financing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

And not only will these investments need to meet the strict and rigorous criteria established under this Bill—

They will also be assessed by Export Finance Australia's expert team of investment analysts—

And must meet the high bar expected of Export Finance Australia's independent Board, before they are referred to Government for a decision.

The second Schedule will expand the role of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency -

And help drive Australia towards our renewable energy superpower goal.

ARENA is an extremely highly respected agency and a proud Labor legacy. It has a strong track record of supporting the commercialisation of Australian innovation needed to not only address climate change, but to capitalise on the huge economic and jobs opportunities that tackling climate change represents for our renewable blessed nation.

We are building on this record of success and we will allocate $6 billion in statutory funding for ARENA for renewable energy investments over the next 15 years.

A big chunk will be used to establish the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund—

To commercialise innovative technologies critical to net zero in areas like green metals, batteries, low carbon liquid fuels and clean technology manufacturing.

And funding will also go to establishing the Solar Sunshot and Battery Breakthrough Initiatives, and providing long-term funding certainty for ARENA's ongoing priorities.

This 15-year funding will help ARENA invest in lasting, forward-looking opportunities -

And we're legislating it, so the funding is above the cut and thrust of the annual Budget cycle.

These changes enhance governance at Export Finance Australia and ARENA—

Making the Minister for Finance a responsible minister for both agencies, alongside relevant existing ministers.

And allowing ARENA to employ its own staff and make it easier to draw in other expertise when needed.

To transform our economy and grasp the vast jobs and opportunities of the energy transition, sizeable amounts of public investment will be deployed by both these agencies.

And our goal here is for public investment to catalyse private investment that's in the national interest.

This Bill works together with theFuture Made in Australia Bill,to set us up to become an indispensable part of the global net zero economy.

The Future Made in Australia Bill lays the foundations upon which our entire agenda will be built—

Embedding into law the strict criteria and robust processes that will guide our decisions and set us up for success.

This Omnibus Bill will allow key government agencies to put their shoulders to the wheel—

To help make investments that put our agenda into action, underpinned by the discipline and rigour the first Bill demands.

And there will be more legislation and consultation to come -

Like for our hydrogen and critical minerals production tax credits—

Which will need to be legislated once we've consulted stakeholders and bedded down the implementation details.

But everything we do from here—

Will be built on top of the solid foundations in the legislative package we are proud to introduce today.

A great transformation is underway.

Australian energy can power it.

Australian resources can build it.

Australia's regions can drive it.

Australian researchers can shape it.

And Australian workers can thrive in it.

That's what these Bills are all about.

That's the future we can make together, right here in Australia.

Full details of the measure are contained in the Explanatory Memorandum.

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 and the Future Made in Australia (Omnibus Amendments No. 1) Bill 2024. These bills seek to retrofit some form of a principle based framework to the government's hodgepodge of announcements that it has rolled together in its Future Made in Australia agenda.

The coalition will oppose these bills, and we encourage all of those in this chamber to oppose them, because, the more we learn about Labor's Future Made in Australia plan, the more clearly we see that the emperor has no clothes on at all. The more we learn about Labor's Future Made in Australia, the more obvious it is that there is no new paradigm, no new economic orthodoxy, as the Treasurer is so fond of claiming and, indeed, penning 6,000-word essays about. No, there is just the same old Labor with the same old industry policy, picking winners, ideologically driven priorities and wrongheaded subsidies, all at the expense of the taxpayer.

It could not be clearer that this does not stack up. It's a plan for pork-barrelling; it's not a plan for building a strong economy. It's a plan that would lead to more government intervention, not more business investment. Worst of all, it's a plan for more inflation at a time when Australian families and businesses are already struggling under the weight of the Labor government's economic mismanagement.

Australia has a proud and strong manufacturing history and a proud and strong manufacturing industry, and, while for decades the coalition has been a champion of this vital sector by supporting manufacturing, it requires far more than simply empty slogans to keep it going. It requires effective economic management, a management style that gets back to basics: affordable and reliable energy, flexible workplace practices that work for both the employee and the employer, less regulation and red tape and green tape, and an incentive based tax system that rewards risk and provides an incentive for people's efforts. These are the pillars of a successful economy, pillars that Labor policies are steadily eroding.

Let's make it clear: the Future Made in Australia Bill is not about securing our future; it's about securing Labor's political interests. Labor is using this bill as a vehicle for pork-barrelling, handing out taxpayer money to favoured sectors without any proper scrutiny. It's not the way to build a strong and resilient economy. Labor's plan fundamentally misunderstands what it is that drives business investment. It's not more government grants and handouts that Australian businesses need, and it's certainly not what they're crying out for. What they need is less red tape, less green tape, less regulation, lower taxes and a regulatory environment that encourages growth and innovation but doesn't stymie it.

Instead, these bills dramatically increase the ability for the government to essentially funnel taxpayer money through the Export Finance Australia organisation and ARENA, transforming them into tools for political gain rather than tools for economic development. The changes to ARENA, in particular, are alarming. ARENA was established as a research and development agency. Previously Labor opposed even expanding the remit of this organisation to cover sensible net zero and related R&D expenditure initiatives, including into carbon capture and storage and blue hydrogen. Labor opposed that. But now, under this bill, ARENA's role is expanded to include deployment, manufacturing and commercialisation—areas that are so far removed from its original purpose.

Labor's changes give the minister for climate change the power to boost ARENA's funding without parliamentary oversight, allowing $3.98 billion to be spent with the stroke of a pen—$3.98 billion of taxpayer money, without scrutiny. This is nothing more than a slush fund for the minister for climate change, Mr Bowen, who will now have the power to roll out billions of dollars without any parliamentary oversight. This is the same old industry policy for the same old Labor.

Let's see how well they're doing so far. We have $1 billion that has already been shelled out for solar panel manufacturers that even the Treasurer's own hand-picked Productivity Commissioner doesn't believe will economically stack up—$1 billion of your money. There's half a billion dollars to an American quantum computing company, and there are serious questions to answer on the process for the funding that the ANAO may inquire into. An American quantum computing company, for a Future Made in Australia: I ask you, how does that stack up?

There is the Solar Sunshot program, which even the Treasury secretary refuses to endorse. I think that's quite extraordinary. And the biggest booster of green hydrogen, Fortescue, are scaling back their ambitions for green hydrogen, not expanding them, despite the promise of tax credits for just existing, for just doing what they were always going to do—tax credits for 'just being'. This is the Labor government's idea of a future made in Australia. Former productivity commissioner Mr Gary Banks described the government's policy as a fool's errand that risks repeating the mistakes of the past by propping up, in his words, 'political favourites'.

Let us consider why the Australian manufacturing industry are in this position to begin with. Labor's policy on energy, on industrial relations and on taxation are making Australia a less attractive place to do business. Insolvencies in this country have skyrocketed. Around 19,000 businesses have gone under since Labor took office. That is 19,000, just in the past 2½ years alone. And there is every indication that there is more to come. That's the highest number of insolvencies on record. Productivity is down by 6.3 per cent in the last two years, and businesses are struggling just to keep their doors open.

The Future Made in Australia Bill does absolutely nothing to address these challenges. In fact, by throwing money into a flawed system, it's likely to make things worse. Inflation is already, in the words of the RBA governor, both 'home grown' and 'sticky'. Prices have risen by 10 per cent, and for working households the cost of living has surged by over 18 per cent. No wonder Australians feel that they're doing it tough; they are doing it tough. No wonder they feel that they're poorer; they are poorer, under Labor. Personal income taxes are up by 20 per cent. Real wages have collapsed by nine per cent, and household savings are down by 10 per cent. In Australia a typical family with a mortgage of around $750,000 is now $35,000 worse off a year. They have to find $35,000 more a year to pay that mortgage. That's not the sort of money you find down the back of a couch.

These are the facts, and they paint a very bleak picture of Labor's economic legacy. Since taking office, Labor has spent an additional $315 billion. That's over $30,000 per household in Australia. And I haven't met a family yet who's feeling $30,000 better off under this government. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer may be trying to pick winners, but the problem is that it's Australian families that will lose under this plan. Australians deserve so much better. They deserve a government that will address cost-of-living issues head on and put their needs first—not the needs of their mates and not the needs of their political favourites. They need a government that will make the tough decisions that are required to secure our nation's economic future.

The coalition's plan is very clear. We will get back to basics. First, we will rein in inflationary spending. We will not spend billions of dollars on corporate welfare for green hydrogen and critical minerals. Instead we will prioritise responsible spending that delivers real benefits for Australian families and Australian businesses. Second, we will cut red tape, removing those regulatory roadblocks that are stifling innovation and suffocating our economy. We will make it easier for businesses to grow and to create jobs; we will not make it harder for them. That's what they are asking of us. Third, we will provide lower, simpler and fairer taxes for all Australians. Everyone should be able to keep more of what they earn, and we will ensure that that happens, injecting that sense of aspiration and opportunity back into our economy. We've already announced our plan to increase the instant asset write-off to $30,000, and not only will we increase it but we will make it permanent. It's a genuine productivity-enhancing policy that will benefit small businesses, which—we must all remind ourselves every single day—are the engine room of the Australian economy.

Fourth, we will deliver affordable and reliable energy by getting more gas into the system to support manufacturers and provide secure base-load power. That 24/7 power is necessary in order for our manufacturers to be viable. This will support businesses with the power that they need to thrive and will ensure that households are not burdened with the skyrocketing energy bills that we've seen over the last two years. Our plan is not about slogans, and it's not about handouts. It's about real and practical solutions that will restore confidence in our economy and rebuild Australia's competitiveness. It's not about ideology, and it's not about playing favourites and picking winners. It's about getting back to basics and getting our economy back on an even keel so that we can all prosper and thrive.

In conclusion, the Future Made in Australia Bill is not the answer to our nation's economic challenges. It is, unfortunately, simply a misguided attempt to paper over the cracks of Labor's economic policies, and it uses taxpayer money to do it. It uses taxpayer money to fund political priorities rather than pulling the levers on those drivers of a strong economy, like energy prices and energy reliability or an industrial relations system that is flexible for employees and for employers, so that it works for all of us and not just for some of us and returns productivity to our economy. It's about reducing red tape, brown tape, green tape and every other kind of tape which this government has wrapped our economy in and which has slowed down business, stifled innovation and made people walk away from their own businesses because it's all too hard. It's about a tax system that gets productivity going and restores that sense of opportunity, so that people know that, if they work hard and take a risk, it will be worth their while.

Most importantly, it's about tackling inflation—the ultimate thief in the night that eats away at your income, erodes your savings, reduces your standard of living and, overall, reduces your quality of life. If you cannot tackle inflation, then as a government, you are not doing your first job, which is to raise people's standard of living, not lower it. That's what we've seen in the last two years. Most importantly it's to address the real needs of Australian families and businesses, to improve their quality of life and make sure that they've got more money in their pockets so that they can have the choices and the opportunities that they deserve and that they expect in what should be and can be—and will be, under a coalition government—a prosperous and thriving society.

The coalition offers a much better way: a return to sound economic management, to responsible use of taxpayer money and to policies that will secure Australians' future.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens are approaching the Future Made in Australia legislation proposed by Labor—the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 and Future Made in Australia (Omnibus Amendments No. 1) Bill 2024—very cautiously. I'll explain in a little while why we are doing that and what some of our concerns and, to be fair, our fears are about this legislation.

I want to start at a high level. While we are in, as we are, an era when the ecological processes that underpin all life, including human life, on this planet are crumbling around us and collapsing and while the planet's climate is breaking down, the time for more government intervention in the economy is upon us. We have seen what laissez-faire capitalism has delivered us. We have seen what a so-called free market approach has delivered us. It has delivered us calamity and catastrophe. It has delivered us a planet that is becoming unlivable. It has delivered us an extinction crisis. It has delivered, and is delivering, us climate breakdown. That's what this hands-off, leave-it-all-to-the-markets approach has done. That is what privatisation has delivered us. That is what allowing corporations to behave in the psychopathic way that corporations do has delivered us. That is what standing back and allowing rampant corporate profiteering and price gouging is delivering us—an unlivable planet and a massive redistribution of wealth in our society away from people at the bottom and in the middle and up to the oligarchs at the top. The time for more government intervention in the economy is upon us. We have to do this. We have to understand that governments can be lenders of first resort. We have to understand that governments can nationalise companies and sectors that currently are run by the private sector but, not many decades ago, were run by governments in this country.

It's ironic that the Australian Labor Party, who obviously are now in government, are the architects of the great privatisation agenda that we've seen in the last 40 or 50 years in this country. Of course, that privatisation agenda and the wholehearted embrace of neoliberalism and corporatism started under Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating. Privatisation is a Labor agenda. Labor governments rarely saw an asset owned by the public—one that wasn't absolutely nailed down—as anything other than something to be sold and privatised. We support starting to move away from this privatisation agenda that's been in place since Labor brought it in 40-odd years ago.

We support moving away from just letting markets rip—letting markets slash and burn, smashing up our society, making our society more unequal, rendering the planet uninhabitable and driving an extinction crisis. We support ending those things and moving back to the scenario where, when there was a social need for something, governments stepped in. Take, for example, housing at the moment. Governments once stepped in and built enough houses so that everyone in Australia could have a safe, affordable and accessible home. That's the way it used to be. Governments would build houses, and they would rent them out at affordable prices so people could have a safe and affordable home. It's a disgrace that, in a country as rich as Australia, we don't have enough homes for people. But that is what neoliberalism has delivered, what privatisation has delivered and what the big corporations who've got their hooks into the establishment parties in this place have delivered. The Greens support governments setting an agenda for the direction of our economy. We need an urgent transition out of fossil fuels and into renewables. Governments should be driving that agenda much more quickly than we currently are. We want governments to put in place frameworks which shape investor decisions about which productive parts of the economy we want money to flow into and which unproductive, undesirable parts of the economy we don't want money to flow into.

The problem that the Greens have with the government's Future Made in Australia agenda is that, even though it sounds terrific to make our future in Australia, we're not convinced it will do any of those things that I just outlined. We're not convinced about that at all. The real danger here is that, as it's been presented to this parliament, Labor's Future Made in Australia agenda is actually all about a future of coal, oil and gas well beyond 2050. Labor's Future Gas Strategy is inherently linked to Labor's Future Made in Australia framework. And that is dangerous. It is dangerous for our country, it's dangerous for everyone in the world, it's dangerous for all the species who are being driven to extinction, and it's dangerous for our climate. We have very real concerns that, hidden within this nice, fluffy, warm-sounding framework, a future made in Australia is actually a dangerous future for coal, oil and gas beyond 2050.

There are some indicators there. I've read the Chevron submission to the Senate inquiry. I've read the INPEX submission to the Senate inquiry. They love it! And do you know why they love it? It's because they can smell public money to boost their already obscene profits. Remember, folks—about a third of the top-100 biggest corporations in Australia pay zero tax. That means that a nurse, teacher, chippie or plumber that goes to work and pays income tax is paying more tax than giant, multinational corporations that operate in Australia and then offshore their profits and avoid their tax responsibilities. One in three of the 100-biggest corporations in this country pay zero tax at all—absolutely nada. Nothing! I say to every nurse, teacher and carpenter—everyone who does an honest year's work in Australia and pays income tax—thank you for your contribution, but what a shame that so many of the big corporations are paying zero tax. Of course, they turn around and use those profits to pay multimillion-dollar salary and bonus packages to their wealthy CEOs and their senior managers. They also use some of those profits to donate to the establishment political parties in this place. And so the cycle goes on.

We have concerns that parliament will pass the bill potentially this or next week. We could be told, 'Now we need to use the Future Made in Australia framework to support the opening up of new gas fields so that we can make petrochemicals or fertilisers to support our economic resilience.' But I'll tell you one thing for nothing, colleagues. The physical reality—not to mention the science and the laws of thermodynamics—is telling us very clearly we need to stop opening new fossil fuel projects. We need to stop it, and we need to stop it now.

Where is Labor's response to that? They have a pathetically weak climate agenda that is actually seeing emissions continue to go up. They're going up, colleagues, since Labor came to power. Labor were elected to bring Australia's emissions down. That's what people believed they were going to get from the Labor Party in return for their vote. And what have we seen? It's a Labor Party that has overseen the continued increase of emissions since it came into government. In Australia currently we have the situation where companies like Santos are buying gas in the domestic market and then turning around and exporting it to fulfil international contracts that they overpromised on and now can't deliver on. I want to say very clearly to Santos and other companies in the same boat: that's not our problem. That is not the problem of the Australian taxpayer, not the problem of the Australian people and not the problem of this parliament. We should make it unlawful for companies like Santos to buy gas in the domestic market and ship it overseas just because they got greedy and they overcontracted. That's Santos's problem; they can fix it. Don't start putting the pain onto Australian consumers. Greedy gas corporations are now pushing onto a meek, complicit Labor government that the government has to deal with the consequences of corporate greed and overcontracting and overcommitment. Well, it's not the government's problem. The government shouldn't be bailing big corporations out of that problem.

The Future Gas Strategy, which appears inherently linked to Labor's Future Made in Australia agenda, has a great big dream, a great big fantasy, underpinning it—that is, the dream and fantasy of opening up the Beetaloo basin, Scarborough and Browse, of fracking the Kimberley, Perth and Surat basins. That's the dream. That's the fantasy of the Future Gas Strategy which appears embedded in Labor's Future Made in Australia legislation. The failures of the gas export industry should have taught us an important lesson that it appears the Future Made in Australia premise has forgotten: we cannot just let multinational corporations swoop in, mine our resources, extract our resources for nothing or next to nothing, and ship the resources and the profits overseas. But here we are with a complicit, weak Labor government that appears to be contemplating doing exactly that into the future under the fluffy, warm badge of the Future Made in Australia legislation.

If we want a Future Made in Australia, let's have a genuine discussion about what that means and what kind of future we want in this country. The Australian Greens support government intervention in our economy to drive public and private funds into productive parts of our economy and out of parts of our economy that are unproductive and deliver negative outcomes to our people and our environment. We support that, and it appears that Labor has accepted, in principle, that it's a good thing. But we have to have an honest discussion about what that looks like in reality—which parts of the economy we want to help, which parts of the economy we want to disadvantage and how we are going frame up a future where we can deliver on the needs of our people and ensure an inhabitable planet where the climate's not breaking down around us and ecological collapse has been averted. Those are the conversations that we need to have, and we have no certainty at all that the Labor Party is ready to have those discussions. We stand ready to enter into a good-faith negotiation with Labor on this legislation, by the way.

We cannot keep privatising the profits and socialising the losses. We saw it during COVID, when Qantas and Virgin needed bailing out. What the taxpayer supports should have done was ensure ownership and equity in those companies for the people of Australia; instead, the companies got massive cash grants. Now that they're profitable again, instead of the public getting a financial return on its investment and its bailout, the companies have just pocketed the money and continued to fleece their customers and give multimillion dollar salary and bonus packages to their CEOs. Socialising the losses while privatising the profits is a tried-and-true public policy failure. The people hate it, and rightly so. Privatisation is a tried-and-true public policy failure. The Australian people hate it, and rightly so. Let's start nationalising companies again. Let's start intervening in the market, and, instead of this hands-off, laissez-faire, disaster capitalism framework that we have now, make markets work in the interests of people and the interests of nature and climate.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():  Well, what a contribution! As usual, the Greens are grandstanding, doing their social media, overhyping their contribution to what is very important legislation. Australia is a lucky country for so many reasons. We are a smart country that can adapt. We are a country that embraces the future—we don't hide from it. We are culturally, geographically and resource rich in every sense. It is our people that are our greatest strength. Our mateship, our unity of purpose and our success as a multicultural country is the envy of the Western world.

The Albanese government is always looking to the future. We are a forward-thinking government, like all great Labor governments. We plan for the worst and hope for the best. This legislation is about locking in our future prosperity as a nation. It is about creating opportunity for all to share in the great wealth of our country. This is about this generation and the next. We know that the world is changing ever so quickly. The global economic climate has changed, and we must change with it. The planet is changing from a carbon-intense planet to a cheaper, cleaner energy producer. This is the purpose. This is the biggest change in the world that we have witnessed since before the Industrial Revolution. The global world order is shifting and if we don't shift and adapt, we will be left behind and will not prosper.

Australia is an amazing continent in the Pacific and it has been dealt an amazing hand to take every opportunity presented to it, to use our natural abilities as a nation and our natural resources, which are in abundance, to make the most of the global net zero economy. We have a unique combination of geographical and meteorological advantages, and we should be seeing all of these as advantageous and using them to make sure that we provide assets and opportunities for all Australians. That's what a good, fair government would do. It would set up Australia to take advantage of and benefit from these as a nation.

The jobs and opportunities of clean energy transition must not be taken for granted. We know those on that side, when they were in government for 10 years, had 22 policies around energy and couldn't even deliver on one—and let's talk a little bit later about their most recent lightbulb moment. On the other hand, the Albanese government want to make sure that we have manufacturing back on our land. We're about creating a future made here in Australia. That's what our agenda is. We're in a unique situation to take advantage of this and to invest in our people. That's what we are doing in our institutions and in this wonderful continent we call Australia. A future made here will power the future and bring the manufacturing base back into our own backyard. We are engaging in investment in our future.

The Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 will help make Australia a renewable energy superpower and an indispensable part of the global net zero economy, to more closely align our national and our economic security interests. That's what this bill is going to do. We will modernise and strengthen our economy in a world built on cheaper and cleaner energy. This bill serves every Australian, not just some. It serves not just those in the cities, but those in our regions as well.

This bill will also ensure public investment in smart investments. It will ensure public investment that pulls in substantial private investment and guides it towards Australia's national and economic interests, like investing in green hydrogen in my home state of Tasmania, or a windfarm off the coast of Tasmania. We will educate and create the jobs of the future so every Tasmanian has a secure, well-paid job that they can rely on into the future. This bill is about a national interest framework which will help us identify sectors where we have a sustainable, comparative advantage in the net zero economy, or an economy resilient and ready to take that next secure step that we need, which is imperative going forward, and make sure that our investments are around the economy of the future, which will give us security for those people who can invest in these ventures.

Secondly, it will give us a robust sector assessment process to help us better understand and break down barriers to private investment in key areas of the economy. Thirdly, there are a set of community benefit principles that will ensure public investment and that the private investment it generates not only leads to strong returns but also leads to a stronger, healthier community.

The National Interest Framework outlines criteria to assess sectors against to ensure that we determine where Australia's national interests are so that we can unlock those opportunities to have private investment. Business must drive this investment and energy transition, and it will, because it has already started this process. We acknowledge that. Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese have made sure that the Future Made in Australia investment is the focus of our latest budget—on refining and processing critical minerals, producing renewable hydrogen, exploring production of green medals and low-carbon liquid fuels, supporting targeted manufacturing of clean energy technology, including solar, and value-adding in the battery supply chain. This is where Australia's future is heading, and we have to capitalise on it.

That's what this bill will deliver. It will deliver a better economy, it will deliver more investment and it will deliver greater outcomes for both regional Australia and our cities. It delivers a smart Australia. An Australia that continues to be reliant on foreign interests to make every single consumable is not the future that we want for Australians. We will make our own solar panels and batteries to power Australian homes and businesses, because there is nothing like Australian know-how and ingenuity. Our attitude is that we can do this and we will. We want people in this chamber to get on board and support this legislation.

The bill empowers the government to direct Treasury to undertake independent assessments, and these assessments will be tabled in parliament to supply transparency and rigorous decision-making and help deliver value for money. If we don't invest correctly, we will waste taxpayer money, and that's not what we're about.

Public investment will be an important and substantial part of our plan. Public and private investment together is what this bill is going to encourage. Private investment must be attractive to enable us to help transform our economy and our communities. This is a public and private partnership. That's what this plan is all about. The most important role for public investment will be to unlock the vast amount of private sector capital that we'll need to deploy—an additional $225 billion by 2050—to transition the energy system and realise net zero opportunities in heavy industries. The framework and the sector assessments will be instrumental here in identifying the barriers to private investment and the opportunities to address them, informed by Treasury's expert analysis and evidence based assessments on top of their own normal policy advice.

Now, we know how important it is to get expert advice when you're talking about energy, unlike those opposite. That's why they couldn't deliver on the 22 energy policies they had when they were in government for 10 years. That's why their latest light-bulb thought about energy will never be delivered—because they haven't got the backing of any experts in that area whatsoever, and the country would never, ever be able to afford it. This bill will also outline a series of community benefit principles, because we know that just pumping capital into transformation won't be enough if we don't pay attention to how we deploy it.

Our educational institutions are amongst the best in the world, which is why we have funded them—unlike those opposite, who gutted TAFE and our other institutions. Education and skills are so crucial to empower our economy and to ensure that we have manufacturing back in our backyard, but, also, educating and skilling up our people is investing in them—not like those opposite, with their record. We need to develop skills that are inclusive to ensure we have the workforces to be able to engage with local communities, including our First Nations communities and communities affected by the transition to net zero. We need to ensure our domestic industrial capabilities thrive if this plan is to be effective, so that local supply chains will be bolstered.

Our $22.7 billion budget investment demonstrates our commitment to a future made here in Australia. Public investment will show us a path to a future made in Australia, but private capital will pave the way. So it's an exciting time to be in business in Australia. It will need thinkers and entrepreneurial people to invest in Australia first, and then businesses second. The Future Made in Australia agenda is investing in a strategy to make our growth strategy stronger and to provide investors with the clarity, certainty and cooperation that they need from government.

I thank our business leaders for working so collaboratively with Treasurer Chalmers, Minister Bowen and Minister Husic, and of course the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, for his vision. He has demonstrated leadership and vision. It is a vision that supports the principles of the labour movement. It supports workers right across the country to make the best quality products right here at home in their backyard. It is time now to act. We wasted 10 years under those opposite in government. The world is changing, and, unlike those opposite, we are ready to accept the challenge of the future. The new age can be a golden age if we make the change now and decide to invest in our people and the Australian spirit.

Our country has suffered through a decade of denial and delay under those opposite, and, if they had their way, there would be another wasted decade ahead, going down a nuclear road to a mushroom cloud.

Let's not make that same mistake of the past. We must be a bold country that is a smart country—a country that knows our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. We can and we will make the best products right here for domestic and international consumption. I'm backing a future made in Australia. I'm backing the Prime Minister and his leadership. I'm hoping that those in this chamber will back Australians and will back Australia's economy to be stronger in the future and to seize the opportunity to lead, not live in the past.

We know that the Leader of the Opposition wants to take us down that nuclear road, when he has not one expert that's come out in support of it. We cannot afford to build it. We know that it's going to be decades in the making. In the meantime, they're not going to deliver any cheaper energy to households. The question is: are you supporting Australians?

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm grateful for the opportunity to make some comments in relation to the Future Made in Australia legislation. In doing so, I want to reflect on where the country has been over these last few decades and pay credit to the Labor Party for, in the 1980s, helping the country bring down the tariff wall—remove subsidisation of industry. Sometimes these measures were supported by the Liberal Party. Not all the deregulation and other economy related measures that were required to build a robust, modern economy were supported. But in general terms, I think in the long run of history will look back at that period as a period when tough judgements were made by that government, the Hawke government. And I think most reasonable people would say it was a government that did things that others could have done but didn't do when they were given the opportunity.

These measures in relation to a Future Made in Australia are winding back the clock 40 years, maybe—maybe more—to a period when the government thought it knew better than the market did, that it could swim against the tide of global capital, that people in Canberra were so smart and so intelligent that they would just run the show from here. That is a very scary position for the country to be in, but it is perhaps not surprising. This has been a regressive parliament. I have been shocked that I've been part of parliament that wound back a tax reform of the last parliament. In this parliament the government reimposed a tax bracket that had been removed by the last parliament. And now we have a government that is seeking to establish a picking-winners approach here in Canberra, where big businesses—it could be foreign or domestic businesses—will be funded by the Commonwealth government.

That is an approach that has been discredited. You can go back to the 1970s and look at all the different debates that were had, by Bert Kelly and others. These issues were ventilated for decades before the Hawke government finally put the tariff wall and subsidisation to death—to their eternal credit. Now we are back in around 1975. We've got another Treasurer, another doctor Treasurer—like Jim Cairns—who thinks he can fund the economy as a venture capitalist. It's been a very regressive period.

So, I would say that the central charge against this government is that it has been so focused on what is important to its favourite fellow travellers—the unions, the super funds and co—that it has had no time to resolve the major economic challenges of the day. That is why people under 40 are going crazy about housing, why the Australian dream is further and further away the longer the Labor government is in office, and why the inflation problem is getting worse here compared with almost any other jurisdiction we would care to compare ourselves with. And that is the problem: the government has been so focused on the rent seekers and the bloodsuckers that it has had no time to resolve the major challenges of the day. And this bill is a continuation of this problem—that the government is trying to feather the nests of its favourite people.

We did an inquiry into this bill through the Economics Legislation Committee. One of the major issues that came up in the inquiry was that the provisions of the bill provide for a form of compulsory unionisation, where grants or payments are made by these funds. In fact, when asked about the so-called community benefit principles, the AMWU said that firms receiving finance grants or equity investment in their firm should be required to have an enterprise agreement with the relevant trade unions registered or enter the relevant multi-employer bargaining stream. This whole business is all about our old mate here saying, 'How can we help the people that are closest to us?' It's not: 'How can we solve problems for the Australian people? How can we solve inflation? How can we help small business? How can we deal with housing?' No; it's: 'How can we give money to our best friends? How can we help the unions?' This is unfortunate.

If I were advising the government, I would not have come into this parliament when it started back in the middle of 2022 and abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission. I don't think that was a very good decision. I know that Senator Watt now is having to deal with that mess, and we all wish him well. But I'm not sure it was a great judgement call for the government. Sure, the longer the governments go, the more they perhaps incur integrity issues when they make bad judgements, but this is another bad judgement of trying to entrench their favourite people into this new scheme.

The Minerals Council of Australia said that the workplace relations elements of the community benefit principles in section 10, paragraph (3) (a) (i) of the bill are unnecessary and would be economically damaging. The Minerals Council go on to say the principles are not about improving working conditions but are a government-mandated attempt at union control of policy, judgements and workplaces. The other issue here is that this will entrench permanent rent-seeking through the picking of winners. The Productivity Commission itself said that industry policy such as Future Made in Australia can be costly for governments, act as a form of trade protection and distort the allocation of Australia's scarce resources towards activities that Australia is not best-placed to undertake.

This takes me back to my central charge that we're going back in time some 40 or 50 years with this approach. The Chair of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, has described the policy as risking 'forever subsidies'. She says that we risk creating a class of businesses that is reliant on government subsidies, and it can be a very effective way of getting them to come back for more. The Productivity Commission is saying what it has always said: this idea of subsidising industry is very dangerous for the economy. I guess they must regret that we are now back in the 1970s and having the same lengthy debates that were won then.

The former chair of the Productivity Commission, Gary Banks, has said that the Future Made in Australia is a fool's errand which risks making the mistakes of the past by propping up so-called political favourites. He was described as a flat-earther by the Prime Minister. Apparently, if you're an economist setting out that there are orthodox things that have been determined over many decades, such as the risk of government subsidising industry forever, you're now a flat-earther. I wonder whether there is a point when government thinks, 'Maybe we actually should try and focus on what will be good for the people of Australia rather than just people who are close to us.' That is really the major issue with Future Made in Australia. It's all about entrenching union control over workplaces, as set out in these community benefit principles.

We had the ACTU come to the hearings. I was able to ask Ms O'Neil, the President of the ACTU, about these community benefit principles. She gave—I would have to say—an answer which was very unclear. We then asked the AMWU and AWU what their views were, and they gave a very clear answer, saying they thought it was very important that any organisation that wanted to receive these funds, grants or subsidies should have a mandatory unionisation policy. At least they were honest. I went on to congratulate the AWU for being honest, because at least they were saying what this is all about. It's all about entrenching control amongst a small group of people.

That is before you even consider the idea of crony capitalism. I would say this is about crony unionisation. The industry minister, Ed Husic, thinks he's going to be a venture capitalist. He will go around and invest in a whole lot of different businesses in Australia and, obviously, abroad. We've seen the billion-dollar bet he's made on PsiQuantum, which is not an Australian company. He will do that. In the process of doing so, he is going to commit our taxpayer funds in circumstances where there must be a union involved. So this is going to be another opportunity to enrich their favourite vested interests. Ultimately, all their chickens will come home to roost, because, after 2½ long years of Labor, the Australian people will be wise to their economic circumstances being much poorer than they were back in May 2022. Regrettably, I've got to say that issues like housing for the under-40s are going to get worse before they get better if this government were to stay in office.

I think people generally want their governments to do well, but they will be very sceptical of efforts to give special deals and handouts to a select few union czars, which is what we've seen out of this government. It was only last week that we discovered that the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, had decided that he would use his position to file a false public interest immunity claim here in the Senate, when the Senate had sought an order for the production of documents to get access to files that were provided by one of his favourite vested interests, the Cbus super fund, which is chaired by his former boss, Mr Wayne Swan, who is also the president of the Labor Party. The story gets better and better, doesn't it? Doctor Chalmers used his position to file a false public interest immunity claim to stop the Senate getting access to the document.

We are lucky that as citizens we have access to freedom of information laws, because, under the FOI laws, we can appeal a judgement. We were able to appeal to the Information Commissioner who provided us with the document that Dr Chalmers had sought to cover up. The document was an effort to lobby by the Cbus super fund to get a special deal so that it could cover up its stamp duty costs from members. It wanted to conceal transparent information from members. Why would the Treasurer use his position to conceal this information from the Australian people? The answer is that it is a government for vested interests, and they were embarrassed about this idea of being exposed. It shows it is completely on brand—that when you get out of bed, you think about the 10 things you could do for your best friends today and how you can use your public office to help your best friends, not the Australian people.

The consequence of all these funds that Labor have set up will be bad for the Australian people, because the off-balance-sheet items of the reconstruction fund, the housing fund and all the other funds they've set up will all be disastrous legacies for the Australian people. They will also have a very dangerous legacy for the government in the short term, because, ultimately, when you stack up these funds and put all your mates onto their boards and they end up doing dodgy things, it becomes an integrity issue. So it is a very good lesson for future governments of what not to do. You would not come into government and spend all your time and capital establishing these off-balance-sheet items, which then go away and make these judgements, and put your mates onto the boards. It's very dangerous because it will only highlight more and more integrity issues like the one we've been discussing this morning to do with Mr Swan and Mr Chalmers.

Ultimately, the parliament may enact a form of this Future Made in Australia bill. If it does, it will entrench a funding source which will be available for rent seekers, and, as the committee process showed, everyone wants to get access to these monies—the chocolate makers, the dog companies, the caravan companies, the desk companies, the lampshade companies, the flag makers and the camera makers. Everyone with a business in Australia applied to this committee to get access to these funds. To be honest with you, I understand this, but that highlights how dangerous this idea is. It will open the door to the rent seekers.

You won't be able to drive from Sydney to Canberra anymore because it will be logjammed with people trying to come from Sydney. I imagine the Barton Highway will be clogged up with people coming from Melbourne to put their hand out to get some taxpayer funds. I guess they are acting rationally, but this is a very dangerous idea that people in Canberra will dish out funds to their mates. But I again caution the government. These ideas may be attractive to them as a way of helping them with and paying off their favourite vested interests, but I believe that they only expose the government to more integrity risks, because, ultimately, the funds will be spent poorly or badly or there'll be cover-ups.

Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very, very proud to stand here in the Senate today and speak on the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024. Manufacturing, the making of things, here in Australia is an incredibly important industry for Queensland, particularly for regional Queensland, and I know that we have a really important choice to make in this country and in this chamber. We can choose a future made here in Australia, we can choose a future economy that transitions to net zero, we can choose a future economy that has more local and regional jobs or, as those opposite are choosing, we can vote down this legislation and say no to more manufacturing jobs, no to more local jobs and no to making more things here in Australia. That is the very clear choice that we have.

Manufacturing is incredibly important not only to me personally but also to the community that I call home. I'm the daughter of a manufacturing worker and I'm very proud of that legacy. When I hear people like Senator Bragg call manufacturing workers 'rent seekers', it really goes to show the respect that those opposite refuse to give to people who have worked hard their whole lives to make things here in Australia and to make more local jobs for more regional communities. I want to stand here and separate myself from those types of comments because I think that manufacturing workers are wonderful people. They work incredibly hard and they support our regional communities.

Manufacturing is incredibly important for Cairns, the community I call home. We have a thriving defence and marine manufacturing industry. Many people would see Cairns and think that it's a tourism town—and, of course, we're very proud of our reef tourism—but under this government we are developing an incredibly strong, industrial base in Cairns. Through the support of the Cairns Marine Precinct we will have more defence manufacturing and more marine manufacturing right there in Cairns. That's what this is all about. It's about supporting regional communities. It's about diversifying those regional communities so they have more local jobs to rely on when we go through things like the COVID pandemic, which meant that our tourism industry had to be put on hold. Our communities throughout regional Queensland rely on manufacturing, whether it's rail manufacturing or sugar manufacturing. These are good jobs, and they're secure jobs because they are on unionised worksites. That's a good thing, because these people are paid good wages. They have good, secure jobs and they support their local community.

What this bill does is set in place a plan for this country to make more things here at home. We need to bring manufacturing back home to Australia, and we need to bring manufacturing back home to regional Australia. When we had nine years of a Liberal-National government, we saw manufacturing slide and we became more dependent on economies outside of Australia. When COVID hit, we were one of the lowest for sustainability and self-sufficiency in the OECD. We want to increase that. We want to build back up again, and we want to do that as a renewable energy superpower, because we know that that is what the world is looking for from us. We have the opportunity, the capacity, the skills, the workers and the knowledge. In a regional town like Cairns, we deserve an opportunity to compete with the rest of the world, and that's what this bill does. That's why we're supporting a future made or Australia.

It's extraordinary that the LNP voted against this bill in the House. It's extraordinary that the LNP will vote against this bill in the Senate. Shame on them for not supporting manufacturing workers. The Labor Party will always back making more things here in Australia. We support manufacturing and manufacturing workers because we know that they deliver good, secure jobs and that they will continue to do that into the future if given the right supports. It's an incredibly important bill and I look forward to continuing my remarks.

Debate interrupted.