Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026
Mr KENNEDY (Cook) (18:25): It's good to hear the member for Swan there—an engineer. She has a lot of learning. Perhaps the Prime Minister, if he's watching, could put the member for Swan in the energy portfolio, because God knows we need an engineer in that portfolio.
They call it the Future Made in Australia, but I worry it's more like the 'future bailed out in Australia'. Unfortunately we've been unable to supply affordable reliable power to so much of Australian manufacturing, be that FJP Manufacturing in my electorate, where they've seen their energy prices go up 41 per cent last year alone, or HF Powdercoating in my electorate, who have seen their gas prices go up 45 per cent.
Both of those businesses have seen their energy prices increase over 60 per cent in the last two years alone. We're not just seeing it in the local businesses in Cook. We're seeing it right across Australia, because at the moment taxpayer cheques are being used to keep companies on life support.
We've just seen that recently in Queensland, where the Commonwealth has had to cobble together a package of up to $600 million to keep Glencore's Mount Isa copper smelter and the Townsville refinery open. This is something that should be competing on low-energy prices. It should be competing on it's own two feet, but this government has crippled industry.
It's crippling SME businesses in my electorate. They're coming to me. I've toured both of those facilities, seen what they do.
I've seen the tens of apprentices they employ every single year. They're working hard with slimmer and slimmer margins to keep these things open, but unfortunately they are up against it and almost closing, as is this big refinery in Queensland. The refinery in Queensland supports about 600 jobs.
That's 600 people who would be out of work if it weren't for government subsidies. Unfortunately we're not investing in sovereignty. We're investing in subsidy dependency.
We are training Australia's businesses to be dependent on this government, to be dependent on the government teat. These businesses want to stand on their own two feet. They want to compete internationally, but unfortunately they've got one hand tied behind their back.
They're fighting the good fight, but this government is not helping them. Even the Productivity Commission and industry stakeholders have flagged the Future Made in Australia and said it has vague criteria and has a protectionist tilt. We should be competing on productivity, cost and reliability, not on bailouts.
Reports indicate that the combined federal and state support aimed at starving off the closure of the smelter and refinery in Mount Isa and Townsville are tied to costs and market conditions. If we had globally competitive energy and if we had globally competitive industrial relations, we would not need emergency public money to keep these businesses open. We wouldn't need subsidies for households or small businesses just to pay their energy bills.
It's not only manufacturing that's suffering. There are reports that energy could double in the next few years for artificial intelligence, and it's going to be a defining force for this century. I think everybody can agree on that, and it's going to be every bit as transformative as the internet was.
Could you imagine the competitive position Australia would have been left in if we had invested more and faster in the internet when it came about? Unfortunately with AI we actually look like we're being left behind. This entirely new frontier of economic growth is not being embedded in Australian workplaces as fast as it is in the US or parts of Europe.
It's going to disrupt and grow manufacturing, health, logistics and finance, and it's happening now. The pace of change is accelerating. The only question is: how much will Australia participate in that versus being left behind?
The Tech Council of Australia estimates AI could deliver $115 billion to our GDP by 2030. It could increase productivity by a percentage point. But it's a contest.
This is a globally competitive contest, and what is this government doing about it? The uncomfortable truth is that, under Labor, we're slipping behind. The reality is that AI can't be powered by speeches, it can't be powered by slogans and, unfortunately for Chris Bowen, it can't be powered by press conferences either.
It depends on hard infrastructure, a skilled workforce and, again, reliable, low-cost energy. This is one of the big reasons that, at COP29—we're trying to get the next COP—31 nations, including the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany and Korea, all signed up to tripling nuclear power by 2050. And it's not just these countries; it's some of the most progressive and innovative companies in the world, from Google and Microsoft to Amazon.
They are all looking at investing in and building nuclear. (Time expired)